GTA 6 price: Kingdom Come studio hopes $80 becomes the norm
GTA 6 costs $80, or $100 for the Ultimate Edition. Warhorse's co-founder hopes that price frees other studios to charge more. Here's who already does.
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The GTA 6 price is US$79.99 for the standard edition and US$99.99 for the Ultimate Edition, and Martin Klima, co-founder of Kingdom Come: Deliverance studio Warhorse, hopes that tag becomes the new normal for big games. He told PC Gamer that raising prices would help studios a lot, but that "everybody's scared to death" to go first. Grand Theft Auto VI launches on November 19.
Key takeaways
- Klima hopes GTA 6 will "blaze the trail" so studios like his can raise prices. It's his opinion, on the record, not a plan Warhorse has announced.
- His reasoning: games keep getting more expensive to make, while the audience and digital stores can't grow much more.
- GTA 6 costs US$79.99 (standard) or US$99.99 (Ultimate Edition) in the US, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, per Rockstar's June announcement.
- A few games already cost US$80, mostly from Nintendo. As of June, Microsoft and Sony still kept their big new releases at US$70, GameSpot reported.
What Klima said about the GTA 6 price
Klima spoke to PC Gamer for a long interview marking Warhorse's 15th anniversary, published September 25. PC Gamer pulled his pricing comments into a separate story on October 1, and other outlets picked it up from there. Some coverage calls him Warhorse's COO; PC Gamer's interview calls him co-founder, so we do too.
His case is that raising the unit price is the last lever left. In his view, Rockstar and its owner, Take-Two, are the only companies that "can afford, or who can dare" to try it. He called the increase "long overdue" and necessary for the business to survive, and wished them luck.
Oddly, he isn't a fan. Klima said the series "doesn't appeal to me at all" and that he won't play GTA 6 unless he's somehow forced to. He also said he respects Rockstar's technical work and hopes the game lives up to the hype.
Why studios fear raising prices alone
Klima's argument, as PC Gamer reported it, runs in steps. Bigger, more detailed games need bigger teams, so they cost more and must sell more copies. The audience can't grow much further: people who don't play either don't want to or can't afford it. Digital stores already squeezed out the retail margin, a point he summed up as "We destroyed retail, and we took all their money."
That leaves the price, and nobody wants to be the first to lose players over it. Klima also told PC Gamer that an established publisher's next game can cost US$100 million, which takes 4 to 5 million sales to break even. He doesn't expect AI to fix this: in his view it will make bigger games for the same cost, not cheaper ones.
He isn't alone. Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden said in 2025 that no one wants to raise prices first for fear of losing customers, GameSpot noted in June.
How much GTA 6 costs by edition
Rockstar and Take-Two announced the prices with pre-orders on June 24. These are US prices; the release doesn't list other markets.
| Edition | US price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | US$79.99 | The game, on PS5 or Xbox Series X|S |
| Ultimate Edition | US$99.99 | The game plus premium vehicles, weapons, apparel and extra content across the story |
Every copy bought before November 20 includes the Vintage Vice City Pack. Digital pre-orders can pre-load from November 12, and the boxed version, which holds a download code, also arrives November 12.
Which edition sells more is less clear. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told CNBC that pre-orders were "skewing more to the premium edition," PC Gamer reported in August, adding that the keenest fans tend to pre-order first. Take-Two hasn't published pre-order numbers by edition.
On the August earnings call, Zelnick argued that pricing hasn't kept pace with inflation and that GTA 6 will be "an incredible bargain." He also said Take-Two's goal is not to maximize price, and kept NBA 2K27 at US$70.
The $80 games already on sale
GTA 6 isn't the first. According to GameSpot's June roundup, these games ask US$80, all of them on Switch 2:
| Game | US price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mario Kart World | US$80 | Digital and physical, since June 2025 |
| Elden Ring Tarnished Edition | US$80 | Physical Game-Key Card, includes Shadow of the Erdtree |
| Nintendo's new Fire Emblem | US$80 | Physical; the digital version is US$70 |
The US$80 tag has also been pulled back once. Microsoft priced The Outer Worlds 2 at US$79.99, then cut it to US$69.99 in July 2025 after fan backlash. GameSpot reported in June that Microsoft has never charged more than US$70 for a big new release's standard edition, and that Sony holds at US$70 too.
What happens next
GTA 6 arrives November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. For more on the game itself, see what Game Informer's cover story revealed, the GTA 6 PEGI rating leak, and the Miami Heat's Vice City night the evening before launch.
Klima's hope is a forecast, not a fact. Whether the GTA 6 price spreads to other games depends on what Microsoft, Sony and the big third-party publishers charge for their next big releases.
Bottom line
GTA 6 costs US$79.99, or US$99.99 for the Ultimate Edition. Klima, who says he won't play it, hopes it gives the rest of the industry cover to charge more. Right now US$80 is the exception: Nintendo and Take-Two charge it, while Microsoft and Sony stay at US$70.
FAQ
How much does GTA 6 cost?
US$79.99 for the standard edition and US$99.99 for the Ultimate Edition, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, per the June 24 announcement. Those are US prices.
Is GTA 6 the first US$80 game?
No. Mario Kart World has cost US$80 since June 2025, and some Switch 2 physical editions cost the same.
Does Warhorse plan to charge US$80?
Not that it has announced. Klima said he hopes GTA 6 will let studios like his raise prices, but he named no game or price.