Warhorse Studios co-founder Martin Klima – the developer behind last year’s historical RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – is crossing his fingers for higher game prices, and he thinks GTA 6 might be the one to usher in a new normal.
Speaking to PC Gamer in a recent interview, the studio boss explained that the games industry is facing a few major problems. The cost of game development has ballooned wildly in recent years, but the audience that regularly buys new games has somewhat peaked. On top of that, the move to digital storefronts means the middle-man of retail is more or less cut out: “We destroyed retail, and we took all their money.”
So, how else can studios maximise cash flow without stuffing games full of microtransactions? “The last thing you can do is to increase the unit price,” Klima said. “That would help a lot, but everybody’s scared to death about it. Now, hopefully, GTA will blaze the trail, and it will allow us to increase the cost.”
According to Klima, Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two are the last ones “who can afford, or who can dare, to increase the price of games, which I think is long overdue and also necessary for this business to survive. So I wish them all the luck.”
GTA 6 is priced similarly to many other high-end triple-A games here in the UK – the Standard Edition costs £69.99. Across the pond in the US, however, GTA 6’s Standard Edition sells for $79.99, about $10 more expensive than most blockbuster games not called Mario Kart World. The Ultimate Edition can go up to $99.99.
The next Grand Theft Auto will likely be the biggest game launch of all time, despite the higher costs in some territories, but there’s no guarantee players will accept an $80 price tag for any game. Case in point, last year, Xbox tried to launch The Outer Worlds 2 for $80 before having to back peddle and sell the sci-fi satire for the usual $70.
Although Klima’s rooting for Rockstar’s success, he’s not all too interested in the upcoming crime romp either way. “I am not going to be playing GTA 6 unless I’m somehow forced to,” he added. “And the reason why it is so popular – it beats me. It’s something which I just fail to understand.” Regardless, he’s still happy that “somebody is making these games that are really technologically marvels.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 comes to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on 19 November. Just earlier today, we learned the game might be the first GTA to feature full-on sex scenes. At the same time, developer Rockstar is in the middle of an employment tribunal in Scotland after being accused of union-busting by a group of fired workers.
