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Take-Two CEO says GTA 6’s $80 price is about value, not charging the most

The $100 Ultimate Edition will include in-game bonuses, while Take-Two points to GTA Online's 13-year run and NBA 2K27's $70 price when defending the standard edition.

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Grand Theft Auto VI will launch at $80, and Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick says the price reflects the company’s aim to give players more value than they pay for rather than charge as much as the market might accept.

In an investor Q&A reported by GamesRadar+, Zelnick said, “Our goal is to deliver way more value to consumers than what we charge them.” He added that the real cost of producing a AAA game is much lower today than it was 20 years ago.

Zelnick went further by calling GTA 6 an “incredible bargain” compared with other entertainment experiences. He pointed to GTA Online, which remains active 13 years after its launch and has reached record levels of engagement at times. For Take-Two, he said, that kind of long-term player interest matters more than setting the highest possible upfront price.

The game’s price had been a source of uncertainty for years, with some players expecting it could reach $100. That question was answered in June, when pre-orders opened at $80 for the standard edition. Take-Two and Rockstar have also announced a $100 Ultimate Edition that will include in-game bonuses, putting it $20 above the standard version. The standard edition’s figure is higher than the usual $70 price, but Take-Two is not presenting it as a new standard for every release.

That distinction is clear when comparing GTA 6 with NBA 2K27, which will launch at the standard $70 price in September. The $80 figure also matches the price Nintendo used for Mario Kart World when the Switch 2 launched, though that amount did not become the default price for every game from the publisher.

Take-Two continues to target November 19, 2026, for Grand Theft Auto VI, keeping the company’s current GTA 6 launch plan in place. That gives the publisher several months to keep building interest around Rockstar’s open-world sequel before release.

Zelnick also urged investors not to treat the pre-order performance as a finished result. He described pre-orders as exceptionally strong but noted that customers can still cancel them, so Take-Two is not celebrating before the game reaches players.

For now, the message from Take-Two is straightforward. GTA 6 will carry an $80 launch price, but the company believes Rockstar’s content and long-term support can make that cost feel small compared with the amount of time players spend with the game.

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Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.