GTA 6 could lift game prices, Warhorse co-founder hopes

Martin Klima, co-founder of Kingdom Come: Deliverance studio Warhorse, wants GTA 6 to be a huge hit even though he has no intention of playing it. In an interview with PC Gamer, Klima said he hopes Rockstar's game will "blaze the trail" toward higher prices across the industry, a change he called "long overdue and also necessary for this business to survive."

Klima's case for pricier games

Klima explained the economics as he sees them, according to PC Gamer. Games keep getting more expensive to make, because hardware keeps getting more powerful and players expect bigger and more complex worlds to match. The money to pay for that isn't growing, though. In his view the audience has largely stopped expanding, and the move to digital storefronts has already delivered whatever extra margin it could. "We destroyed retail, and we took all their money," he said. He added that the pandemic produced an "artificial demand" that has since worn off.

That, he argued, leaves a single option. "The last thing you can do is to increase the unit price," Klima told PC Gamer. "That would help a lot, but everybody's scared to death about it." He sees Rockstar and Take-Two as the only companies "who can afford, or who can dare" to go first, and offered them his support: "So I wish them all the luck." Eurogamer presented his argument as a way for studios to earn more without filling their games with microtransactions.

What GTA 6 actually costs

GTA 6's Standard Edition sells for $79.99 in the US and the Ultimate Edition for $99.99. PC Gamer says Take-Two confirmed that pricing in June. Eurogamer notes that the UK picture looks different: the Standard Edition costs £69.99 there, in line with other big releases. According to Dexerto, the Ultimate Edition has been criticised for holding back content such as stores and side missions, and the $400 Collector's Edition has drawn complaints because it doesn't include a copy of the game. Our GTA 6 price and editions guide breaks down what each tier includes.

Douse and Dessouky said it first

Klima isn't the first to pin the industry's pricing hopes on Rockstar. Dexerto points back to late 2024, when Larian's Michael Douse posted on social media that most games should cost more at a base level, adding: "Everyone's just waiting for GTA 6 to do it." PC Gamer also recalls that in May, Bank of America analyst Omar Dessouky argued that a higher price for GTA 6 would "raise the price point for the entire industry." Other publishers are watching too: Activision's marketing chief recently said GTA 6 will help Modern Warfare 4.

Players may not go along with it. Eurogamer cites The Outer Worlds 2, which Xbox planned to sell for $80 in 2025 before backing down to the usual $70. PC Gamer's writer still expects Klima to get his way, predicting more expensive games in 2027 and beyond once GTA 6's price becomes the norm.

A fan of the tech, not the series

Klima was blunt about his own taste. The series "doesn't appeal to me at all," he told PC Gamer, and he said he won't pick up GTA 6 "unless I'm somehow forced to." He can't explain its popularity either: "It's something which I just fail to understand." He also made clear he has nothing against Rockstar, saying it's "really good that somebody is making these games that are really technologically marvels."

GTA 6 launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19. Its sales will be the first real test of whether an $80 price can stick.