A reader argues that rumours of GTA 6 costing up to £100 could be good for gaming, if it ends the need for live service games and microtransactions.
There’s a lot of rumours that go around in the video game world and a lot of them seem to come true… just ask Nintendo. One that’s been around for a while now is the idea that Rockstar Games is going to charge $100 (so likely £100) for GTA 6. It was just a rumour and not from one of the better sources, so a lot of people dismissed it – even though you can totally imagine it as something they’d want to do.
Now, this week, I read that analysts have ‘hope’ that not only is GTA 6 going to cost that much but that other games will be able to charge that much as well and the ones that can’t justify it can at least increase their price by $10/£10. So £80 would probably become the new norm, with £100 reserved for the very biggest games (I’d imagine Call Of Duty and EA Sports FC, for example).
I honestly think this would be a good thing. I know what you’re thinking but hear me out, because I know I’m not the first to say that games need a price rise, and that they’ve become completely disconnected from the amount of time and money need to make them. Which is why we have so few new ideas and too many microtransactions.
The most obvious argument in favour of a price rise is that games have barely increased in price since they were invented. Back in the day, new SNES games were either £50 or £60, so prices actually went down at the start of the PlayStation era. I don’t remember how much Starwing (aka Star Fox) was at the time, but I do know it was more expensive than even that.
£60 in 1992 is £130 when adjusted for inflation, so not only are games today still cheaper than they were back in the 90s but even increasing them to £100 would be a lot less than even just a standard game back in the cartridge days.
I don’t know why publishers don’t constantly try to increase the price. You’d think doing it by just a few pounds every couple of years would get people used to the idea and mean no sudden leaps. But they haven’t done that and so whenever there is a price increase people get very angry.
I’m not in favour of this because I’m rich or anything but we’re constantly told that most people only buy a few games each year, so in that sense a modest increase doesn’t seem so bad. It’s not like I’m advocating increasing your grocery bill by double every week.
But I believe that many of the problems we have with games at the moment is because publishers are struggling to make enough money from them and have to constantly invent things like DLC and microtransactions to get more money out of people. No game is ever complete nowadays, without buying extra content and the idea of having unlockables that are free just doesn’t happen anymore.
They’re always looking to nickel and dime us and, to be honest, I can kind of see why. Before you think I’ve gone crazy I’m not saying everything should be £100 but if something like GTA 6 has taken $2 billion and a decade to make I’m fairly confident it’s going to be worth it.
Not every game is going to be in that situation though and I think one of the main benefits of the price increase is that it could pay for the other games. A lot of people don’t realise that most games make little or no profit, most publishers only have one or two big games that make the money and that’s why publishers are so desperate to have a hit live service game, despite it being so unlikely.
A price rise would mean they no longer need to chase that rainbow, plus they can make smaller and more experimental games a lot easier. They wouldn’t do being this out of a love of gaming but simply because they know they need new blood and it’s getting harder and harder to afford taking that chance.
I for one would be very happy if a £100 EA Sports FC, for example, ended up paying for EA to make some new games and try and stop fleecing everyone. If we know how much a game is going to be upfront and there’s absolutely no hidden extras, I think that’s a lot better situation to what we’ve got today.
By reader Grackle
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