The year 2026 could be one of the best ever for gaming. What with games like the recently released Resident Evil: Requiem, 007 First Light and, of course, GTA 6, this could be a year to remember. But it’s GTA 6 that’s surely in millions of gamers’ minds right now, even though it’s still more than 6 months away, being slated for release in November this year after being infamously delayed in 2025.
And after seeing the most recent trailer showcasing protagonists Jason and Lucia misadventures in the sprawling state of Leonida, GTA fans are surely more eager than ever to get their hands on the eagerly anticipated game.
The thing is, rumors online have been pointing to the possibility of the game costing $100 US dollars. This means a bigger outlay could await gamers looking to buy the next Grand Theft Auto come this fall. However, in a recent interview, the CEO of Take-Two (GTA’s publisher) may have suggested that the game may in fact be priced at a more reasonable $70 or $80 US dollars. Speaking to The Game Business (via TweakTown) CEO Strauss Zelnick said that it would not be fair for players who had paid the aforementioned price to put up with in-game advertising.
“For free-to-play titles, yes. For titles for which you’ve paid 70 or 80 bucks? No. We have some limited advertising inside games like NBA 2K because it fits with the vernacular. You want to see advertising in a stadium, because you would if you were there in real life. But that’s not a big economic contributor”, said the man.
This may give fans of the franchise and newcomers (but who hasn’t really played GTA V or GTA Online by now?) hope that Rockstar won’t get greedy with GTA 6 and release it with a three-figure price this November.
Of course, there’s also the fact that GTA 6 is costing Rockstar and Take-Two a fortune to make. An official UK government document, which was sourced from Rockstar’s own financial statements, recently revealed that the company has spent a whopping 2.1 billion US dollars on wages and salaries to date related to GTA 6’s development.
The game’s budget is expected to balloon to over $3 billion before release date, something which would make GTA 6 the most expensive video game of all time by far… It would be far more expensive than Rockstar’s own Red Dead Redemption 2, which is rumored to have cost as much as $540 million. It would also dwarf what other heavyweight games like Cyberpunk 2077 cost. The sci-fi RPG by Polish studio CD Projekt came in at about $442 million, while other top games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Horizon Forbidden West cost $315 million and $212 million US dollars respectively.
GTA 6 could be the most expensive game ever made.
Despite this, Rockstar and Take-Two might still refrain from pricing GTA 6 at $100. Pre-orders of GTA 6 are expected to bring in a huge amount of cash – upwards of $1 billion – meaning publisher Take-Two and Rockstar will be making back a hefty chunk of their investment even before the game hits shelves. There’s also GTA Online too, with the GTA 6 version of it likely becoming another cash cow for Rockstar.
This is the reason why Jay Klaitz (the actor who plays Lester in GTA V) has said the game may very well cost $100, as “you’re almost buying multiple games when you buy the one” according to the actor. In a more recent interview, though, Klaitz said he hopes GTA 6’s price is “accessible to all players “.
Pricing games beyond $70 US dollars might lead to a backlash from gamers, too. It happened last year with Borderlands 2, for instance. Its creator suggested in an X post that the game could ship at $80 US dollars, and that people were not being true fans for not wanting to pay the price… This draw an irate reaction from gamers, with Take-Two finally launching the game at $70 in what was one of the biggest video game controversies of 2025. And they might very well do the same with GTA 6.
This could be the case even if the next Grand Theft Auto might be an incredible, once in a generation experience. As stated earlier in this article, Take-Two and Rockstar have spent an ungodly amount of money on development so far, and it is estimated that more than 6,000 people are working on the game worldwide. This has allowed the company to do hitherto unseen things like “procedural breakable glass system” which a former developer claims to have worked on during his time at Rockstar. So glass in the game will likely react just like in real like when you break it, adding to immersion…
So maybe those who have been playing GTA V and GTA Online for years might not care about parting with $80, or even $100 bucks for GTA 6 come November 19 this year. However, more casual gamers might not be in the mood to spend three figures on a video game come this fall, expecting the more usual $70 US dollar price for a console game (Nintendo Switch 2 titles being the exception here).
Either way, here’s hoping Rockstar delivers on its promises with the upcoming GTA 6, releasing an incredible game that’s priced just right come this November.