Speaking at iicon today, a new conference for video game executives, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the much-debated question of how much Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost. He declined to confirm the game’s price, but hinted away from the potentially super-premium price point that has been floated in the past.
“Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery,” Zelnick said. “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.”
He went on to mention that game pricing has actually gotten cheaper over the years, a reference to the fact that major game releases have been priced at $60 or at most $70 for more than a decade, as compared to greater rates of inflation seen in the wider economy.
“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.”
Zelnick also said that he’s “terrified” of the question of how to measure the success of GTA 6, but that he and the teams are more focused on delivering a fantastic experience than worrying about how it performs.
"What we think about is making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history."“
“What we think about is making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history – and it’s a pretty daunting challenge. If we do that, and if we’re of service to our customers, then the upside will take care of itself.”
That said, he did follow it up with a quick quip that he does “think a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19.”
Elsewhere in the talk, Zelnick gave some (slim) hope for fans of L.A. Noire that a sequel might happen one day.
“Broadly, we’re looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property,” he said. “There’s nothing to announce on L.A. Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me. But in any case, with regard to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that’s passionate about working on that?”
For more on what could the biggest video game launch in history, check out the latest on the stolen data from the Rockstar hack saga and Zelnick's comments on GTA 6 the digital-only release rumor. GTA 6 is set to launch on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and we'll be keeping up with everything leading up its release.
Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.
