Rockstar Games gave some Grand Theft Auto fans sticker shock when it revealed the price of GTA 6 would be $80 rather than $70, and that the Ultimate Edition — which has some content locked behind it — will be $100. This is a lot of money. There is obviously a ton of value, given this is a massive game with the biggest video game budget of all time, complete with varied content that will be bolstered with more content for many years to come. There is a ton of value with GTA 6, but value doesn’t change the fact that the wallets of many are going to feel lighter come November 19.
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That said, a new update about the price of GTA 6 has revealed that it is the cheapest game in the series when inflation is factored into the equation. And this has come as a surprise to many, but it is true. GTA III cost $50 in 2001, but that is $92 in today’s money. GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas cost $50 as well, in 2002 and 2004, respectively, which is $92 and $88 in today’s money. Then came GTA 4 in 2008. This is when the series went to $60. The economy was awful in 2008, so this brought the series back up to $94 in today’s money. Five years later, GTA 5 came out at the same price, which was $86 in today’s money. This was the cheapest game in the series, when accounting for inflation, until GTA 6, which is $80 in today’s money. Because there was such a massive gap between GTA 5 and GTA 6, the series shot straight past the $70 era, which remains the dominant price point for AAA games, but this is going to change in the next couple of years with more AAA games heading to $80.
Problems With This Calculation
On the surface level, this seems like a win for Grand Theft Auto fans, but there’s more to it than this. The major problem with equating inflation with affordability is that it ignores the bigger picture. The reality is that wages have lagged behind inflation, while the likes of housing, healthcare, insurance, groceries, and more consume a larger share of income than in all of the other years mentioned. In inflation-adjusted terms, GTA 6 is cheaper, but people have less disposable income than every year above, other than maybe 2008, which is when the recession happened.
The reality is that $80 in 2026 is going to hurt more than $60 in 2013 or $50 in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Does it hurt as much as $60 in 2008? Maybe not. Whatever the case, in the raw numbers, this is arguably the cheapest GTA 6 game to date, but when fleshed out with context, this doesn’t really hold in reality.
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