GTA VI at $80: The Backlash Was Predictable — and We're All Going to Pay Anyway

Nobody should be surprised that GTA VI costs more than usual. AAA games have been creeping upward in price for years, inflation has done its part, and we're talking about the follow-up to GTA V — a game that has sold over 200 million copies. Seeing $79.99 standard and $99.99 Ultimate sitting in your cart stings, but this wasn't an ambush. It was always coming.

Here's our unfiltered take: we're going to pay it, and it will probably be worth it. A GTA game isn't an 8-hour experience you shelve and forget — it's a machine that generates hundreds of hours between the campaign and its online mode, which stretches on for years. When you divide the price by the hours you'll actually put in, GTA is among the cheapest entertainment around. Paying $80 for this hurts less than paying $70 for a game you drop after a weekend.

What does bother us is something else entirely: the so-called "physical" edition is just a code in a box, with no disc. That's not justifying a premium price — it's cutting corners on the back end while raising them on the front. If you're going to charge $80, let the people paying for physical media actually get something physical. On the price hike, we understand. On the fake disc, zero tolerance.