Bank of America Warns $70 GTA 6 Would Hinder $80 Game Prices Across Industry

One of the biggest questions in gaming right now is the price of Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two have remained tight-lipped, only hinting at offering great value and noting that game prices haven't risen much over the years. Now, Bank of America has entered the conversation.

According to Seeking Alpha, Omar Dessouky of BofA Global Research attended last week's iicon conference (also attended by IGN) and came away with a strong recommendation: GTA 6 should cost $80, $10 more than the standard $70.

Analyst opinions on GTA 6's price vary widely. Some suggest Rockstar should stick with $70, while others argue it could justify up to $100, depending on how they handle the next iteration of GTA Online. GTA 6 is poised to be the biggest entertainment launch ever, selling tens of millions of copies on day one. It will undoubtedly reshape the gaming industry, not only in financial terms but also in setting future price standards.

Dessouky touched on this, stating that if GTA 6 launches at $70, other game companies would struggle to charge more. This would put pressure on publishers like Nintendo, which charges $80 for Mario Kart World.

"We also heard from attendees that the industry, which is perceived as struggling, would have difficulty selling games for $80 if GTA 6 came out at $70," Dessouky said. "We think it's in Take-Two's self-interest, as a publisher and partner to many developers, to raise the price point for the entire industry."

This suggests Take-Two would be doing the industry a favor by pricing GTA 6 above $70, potentially opening the door for all new triple-A games to cost $80. But will they do it?

As reported by IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told the iicon audience: "Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery. How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got."

Zelnick also noted that game pricing has effectively become cheaper over the years, with major releases staying at $60 or $70 for over a decade despite inflation.

"If you look at it through that lens, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But that isn't the lens through which we look. Instead, we look at… how do we deliver something amazing, and how do we make sure that what people pay for it feels very reasonable."

We'll have to wait until Rockstar kicks off GTA 6 marketing this summer (hopefully with Trailer 3) to learn the price. After delays, GTA 6 is set to launch on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S only — no PC day-one release, as Zelnick recently explained.