It’ll make calculating steam sale prices quite easy, won’t it?
Yeah, they won’t appear cuz they’re all ignored 😂
Ubisoft I’ve just had an idea to win players back
Remember when Apple released the $1000 phone and it was a big thing?
Eventually this will be the normal.
I mean… yeah, give it a long enough time and it will be. Kinda how inflation works. “Eventually” is a pretty expansive word.
I’m pretty sure most major games have MSRPd for $60 since the 90s
Sorta kinda. We moved to 69.99 for major releases a while ago. Late 2000s in some territories, later in others.
In the US it was 59.99 for the CD era, but it was higher before when cart costs were a massive chunk of the retail price. I bought games that launched at 100 (or its local equivalent) in the 90s, particularly on SNES and N64.
But it’s true that prices have been super stable while moving from expensive carts to cheap CDs and then trivially expensive digital releases. Now there’s no way to cut costs on distribution (you’re already subsidizing storage, it’s just down to bandwidth, which is paid by the retailer anyway). So now inflation is catching up, since none of the money is going to making boxes, stamping CDs or shipping games in trucks. Now when inflation hits there’s no longer a way to hide the pricing impact, so it goes to sticker price.
And people are so used to that stability that they immediately rage on the Internet, if this thread is anything to go by, so the only answer is to hide more of the cost in MTX and dump the sticker price altogether.
Kinda argued against myself there. The real answer isn’t prices will “evenutally” go up, it’s that they will go down to zero and traditional gaming will become mobile gaming. That’s probably more likely.
I can tell you right now I’m not paying AUD$160 for a new game in the near future
Why pirate shitty AAA games when you can spend your time getting a better experience by supporting indie devs financially and in word of mouth?
Word of mouth provided by pirates is still great for the AAA games industry, regardless of what they’ll tell you, and only helps perpetuate these bad practices you’re pirating to get away from. 99.9% of users are unwilling to pirate games, and thus when you reference them, say you played or enjoyed them, talk about pirating them, etc., it’s essentially just free advertising for those games to people who would in all likelihood just purchase them if they wanted them.
Meanwhile, playing indie games gives those devs some cash flow to keep developing and gives free, word of mouth advertising to other people through references, recommendations, etc. The more successful indie games with good practices are, the better the games industry as a whole. It’s not a zero-sum game, but there is some tradeoff involved.
Game budgets are crazy. In order to get the profits shareholders want they’ll charge as much as they can get away with.
Indies are actually performing well, so we might see a shift like we saw with film in the 90s.
“According to Matthew Ball’s The State of Video Gaming in 2025 presentation, first spotted by VGC, some developers “hope” the next installment in the GTA franchise will be priced at $80–$100, fully capitalizing on its status as the most anticipated game on the market. This increase, the report suggests, would allow studios to raise the price of their own new games by at least $10 to offset declining player numbers and inflation while justifying the change by pointing to GTA VI’s example.”
Who the hell are the developers clamoring for this?
No, what’s going to happen is that, with so many game sales happening every week, people are largely going to wait for the sales axe to come down on GTA VI until it’s affordable. The only people who’d happily buy GTA VI at that price point, are gullible FOMO-pearl-clutching “gamurs”, gaming “journalists”, benchmark nerds and egotistical Day-1 flaunters. That’s about it.
The moment GTA VI hits a single sale, then most will jump on it.
While I wish you were right, something tells me that even with an 80-100$ pricetag it’ll still be one of the most successful games ever released.
Look at diablo4, for example. 70$ base game, 90 for deluxe, and 100 for ultimate plus mtx in the store at stupid prices. And apparently it’s sold over 6 million copies and made over 600 mil in revenue in the first week. And it’s not even a good game, in my opinion.
I’ll shamefully admit that I would’ve bought Diablo IV at launch. But the dealbreaker for me was when they made it online-only, like Diablo III. Good preventative measure.
I rarely spend more than 15 eurodollars on a game, but realistically for the average cough console cough player the difference between 60 and 80 is a few beers with your pals, and you spend way more time playing GTA than drinking those few beers.
Who the hell are the developers clamoring for this?
Gonna guess the tens of thousands getting laid off who are anxiously waiting for money to come back to the business so they can get hired again.
VERY educated guess, there.
If these hypothetical developers are waiting for cash infusions to “fix” the finances of thesw disastrously managed companies, then they’re pretty naïve. Successful games are making multi-millions, even middling franchise games can pull that. More than enough to sustain a normal sized development team.
I imagine maintaining a reasonable team would result in fewer unemployed developers than overbloating the team thinking “more is biggerer is more money” and then cutting tens of thousands of positions for “costs.”
would allow studios to raise the price of their own new games by at least $10 to offset declining player numbers
Wonder how much they’ll raise it next when they lose additional sales to absurd prices.
I mean, I’d be pissed but I’d probably still buy it, providing it was fully playable offline and the content reflected the price. I play GTA when it releases, beat it, fool around a bit and never touch it again. The last time I spent money on gta was when V released on 360, more than 10 years ago.
I have paid full price for a game in 10 years and GTA6 will be late to the PC party anyway. Looks like I won’t be playing it until 2035.
I don’t even buy a game when it’s 70…
At 80 there is no fucking way…
90, are they crazy? Never!
100? Lulz, go fuck yourself lunatic
I think there is maybe 1 game that I would consider spending 100 for the base game. And that’s because I love the series and it is very much a long term game for me, Street Fighter.
But that would be a very tough sell, it would have to be something really special to part with that much, even though I know I would get 1000s of hours out of it
You already spend more than 100 for Street Fighter and always have. The full roster for SF6 is currently 100/110 bucks. Not counting MTX and extra cosmetics.
Sure, you didn’t pay it all at once, but that’s no different than me buying SF2 and then Super SF2 the following year, each for seventy-ish bucks.
While true, the base game is still only 60.
If I had to spend an additional 40 for just the base game(not the 2 seasons of characters), that would be a much harder sell.
Sure.
And the natural conclusion of that is why have the up front charge at all. You do the 2XKO thing or the Multiversus thing and just let people play and charge for the characters. Of course that may mean being online for purchase authentication, right?
I don’t like where that goes.
I think SF in particular is pretty sure it can pull a decent chunk of cash up front and not impact sales too much, so that’s better for them, since they’re monetizing all the casual players, but sitll. It’s a dynamic that’s in play and I don’t like it.
I think that’s missing a lot of the content. If SF6 was free to play, if wouldn’t have the single player portion. And would have had a couple of free characters.
2XKO is going to launch with something like 9 characters(might be missing remembering the number), Maybe they add more before release but it is a tiny roster for a tag game.
There is also massive changes between games, and they don’t disappear, so you can still have those tournaments. If it goes free to play, I feel like they kinda get stuck with the game and systems and no easy way to move onwards, with a bit of a PR nightmare(abandoning the game and all that).
I feel like there is pros and cons to both methods, but don’t really think f2p Street Fighter is a good move. I do think sf7 whenever that is released will be another paid game, and will be more expensive upfront.
I do think fighting games are a special case because the DLC is so obvious that the seasonal microtransaction stuff is not as much of a focus.
But hey, SF6 did add a battlepass, so… it’s moving in that direction. We’ll see.
Looks like PatientGamers’ membership numbers will be on the rise soon.
I never pay full price for a game.
Always running sales. If they aren’t just check history or set an alert on isthereanydeal and wait a bit.
This is the way.
Thank you for the first link, kind stranger.
It’s surprising that games are getting cheaper compared to the cost of living. If you take into consideration the fact that games are becoming more expensive to produce, I really don’t understand it.
Gaming is way cheaper for me than it was during the ps2 or ps3 era.
some developers “hope” the next installment in the GTA franchise will be priced at $80–$100
Management are NOT DEVELOPERS.
Executives are NOT DEVELOPERS.
Shareholders are NOT DEVELOPERS.
Yeah, I guarantee you not a single developer gives two shits about how much the game costs. It’s not going into their pockets regardless.
That’s not true. I’ve been a developer for 18 years on big AAA and small indie games. Most people I’ve worked with very much cared about pricing. When you work on a game and put years of hard work into it, you want it to be a success. If the game is not profitable, you might lose your job so of course you care when management shows up with a pricing strategy that doesn’t make sense to you. Sure, passion is a big part of making games but it’s also our job and we’re not oblivious to what the game we’re working on is worth.
Oh and yes, we do get bonuses based on the performance of the game.
Opinions on that one time Microsoft closed Arkane and the studio behind HiFi Rush, despite the latter’s success and the fact the former made Redfall a slop because of total mismanagement? I’m curious in how nervous that makes you as a developer and how common this bullshit is as seem from within; from outside, it’s basically all I remember about AAA because I don’t often interact wit the scene apart from reading.
Playing lots of RPGs and Jrpgs has trained my Patience. I never buy a game at full price, regardless of how much I want it. I simply wait for a sale until it’s below 35 euro.
This is some weird reporting.
For one thing, I’m not American, baseline game prices here took a similar hike during the PS4 era, so I’d be curious to see if or when US game prices adjust and whether that comes with a local price bump. Although looking at recent releases maybe they already did.
For another, it is kind of insane how much lower the baseline price of what used to be called “retail packaged goods” games has gotten adjusted for inlfation. As I write this, Civ 7 is the best selling full price game on Steam, going for 69,99USD. That’s 48-ish USD in 2010 money, the Internet tells me. The previous release to even get close to the best sellers list at that price (and it sold pretty terribly, as far as I can tell, at least on Steam), was Indiana Jones, for the same price. Everything else is much, much, much cheaper, with the list being dominated by games anywhere between free to play and thirty bucks.
That’s two conflicting pushes. Games are dirt cheap now. You can’t even sell them at the sticker price that was normal in the 2010s anymore, and even if you did, that’s 30% less inflation-adjusted money than before. The average game developer salary has gone from high 90K to 115K in 2025 in that period as, again, the Internet tells me.
So basically GTA or no, I don’t see how you get anything BUT GTA sequels and Call of Dutys going forward. It’s MTX-fests or nothing. It’s pretty messed up, IMO. I like splashy, good-looking AAA games and would take them any day over, say, a Marvel Rivals. But spoiler alert, Marvel Rivals is going to make all the money and you’ll be lucky if you ever see a Ratchet sequel again, let alone a third party big single player game.
So… pick your poison, I suppose.
People pay $1200 for an iPhone. I’m sure they’ll pay the $100 for a game. How? I’m not sure but they always seem to.
Personally, I don’t but I am never the trend setter.
They offer payment plans for a cell phones I’m waiting for the day that they start offering payment plans to purchase video games. They’ve already trialled with it with the hardware with the Xbox Series X launch with their all access pass, which don’t get me wrong was a great deal but, eventually we are going to hit the point where the everyday person if they want to buy a video game is going to have to do one of those by now pay later plans through like affirm or something, which is a scary thought. As is if it gets much higher than $100 it will qualify for paypals 6-month equal financing deal if you have their credit card, if this change had been just 6 months prior it would have already been qualified for it because they just recently raised their minimum so I think it’s like $120 or $140
I’m not paying if its not below $30, why would i pay for $100? GTA 5 is already disappointing i’m pretty sure they chop even more thing up and make most content online only. $100 is already rm450 in my country and that’s almost 1/3 of minimum wages, I’ll continue to be stingy and spend my money on better stuff.
They deserve piracy.
How is GTA5 disappointing? I remember playing it a couple of years after release and it still is one of the best open world games I ever played. Even now, more than 10 years since I played it, I remember the main characters and even some secondary ones and part of the story (even though I only played it once). If anything, I think the GTA5 model is what all “service” games should be – excellent story and single player campaign and…whatever that online thing is. Frankly, I’ve never touched the online part in GTA5 but I hear it’s quite successful.
Regarding the price, I would personally probably pay a bit more for a really really good game. I don’t think the very good games selling for a premium are the problem, but the unfinished, reskinned and shitty games selling for 60-70. Like, how is Elden Ring released at the same price as Skull and Bones or FIFA <current-year>? Those should be 10-20 bucks, not the good games (assuming GTA6 will keep the quality bar up).
can’t play online without hacks unfortunately. sad state of affairs. but overall, game wasn’t bad except for the money grab with sharkbucks
I’m glad you enjoy it and my opinion of it doesn’t negate your feeling, however i should say i find the middle part of the story to be very bland and the ending is forgettable. We’re also sold on the idea of heist but we only have the grand total of 5, which again, i find it very forgettable and bland.
In fact i still can remember a lot of San Andreas, but i can’t remember much about gta5.
Not a big fan of the idea of spreading the story focus amongst the trio too, i think i’d enjoy more if it’s just focus on Franklin.
The post game is also pretty empty, not much side story to do because they put their effort on online mode.
Overall it’s a pretty mid game to me.
Frankly, I’ve never touched the online part in GTA5 but I hear it’s quite successful.
The microtransactions kept a very steady flow of hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter to Rockstar, so yeah, it’s absurdly successful
I’m loving the balls on studios. Yesterday we had “experts” suggesting it might cost 100 bux, and today it’s already the beggining of a trend. And the game isn’t even out. In fact, we only have the trailer for the game and they’re already predicting prices.
My prediction is yes, they’ll ask 100$ and more, and yes, people will pay it.
But the nerve, I swear. “Yeah, our games have gotten sloppier every year. And yes, we fired tens of thousands solely for profit reasons. But line must go up, so you better start paying”
My prediction is yes, they’ll ask 100$ and more, and yes, people will pay it.
Well the game could be disastrous and sell poorly after the first week.
To be honest, they could launch the game as a 1 MB file that brings you to a black screen that says get fucked, and they would still make their money’s worth just out of the people who will blindly buy the game because they’ve been waiting for GTA 6 for so long that they bought it release day.
And then they could just move back to GTA V pretending nothing happened because the same people that would have impulse purchased GTA 6 with zero research are also the people who play GTA V religiously spending money on the micro transactions there and that isn’t going to cut their addiction
Honestly this could all be a campaign from Rockstar to get ahead of higher pricing. They throw out $100 to some random people and let them run with it, so when they announce a $80/$90 price tag everyone bregurdingly goes along with it.
That’s what I’m thinking. Get the fanbase used to seeing 100+, and then suddenly an 80$ game will feel like a bargain lol
I honestly believe it, these test the water kind of leaks, more like intentionally invisible marketing to see the reactions
I think rumours about the price tag were already going before the trailer even came out lol.
Do you really think people will buy it? I’ve played most of the GTAs, but I’m not about to spend 100 dollars on a video game.
You’re clearly not the target audience. Every slightly popular game has its whales. Something as popular as GTA? They’ll sell it at $100 and laugh all the way to the bank.
Something to consider. With conversion, new games are usually $80-$100 in Canada.
People still buy them.
Meaning this game will be MORE THAN $100 Canadian and still sell like hotcakes.
Look at Pokémon games, they sell like pancakes with barely an attempt at a story, minor gameplay improvements and barely running in their native hardware, their target audience will spend whatever they are told and defend the price no matter what.
Same thing here.Yeah but they don’t cost $100
Not yet, might follow after this stunt faces no lash back and results in profits.
I don’t know though you’ve got to consider your target audience and their income method. The income method for the target audience of pokemon games is asking their parents.
Thats a no from me dawg
