GTA 6 Costing As Much As $100 Could Help Video Game Industry Rebound In 2025, Analyst Says

[Salnax]

Some people will point out that adjusted for inflation, this isn't historically THAT high. I agree on technicality, but think that the context matters.

1. Video Games are a lot more popular now, meaning that developers and manufacturers should benefit from economy of scale and not developing for a small niche audience. Arguing that Legend of Zelda cost over $100 back in the day isn't that good an argument when sales for NES Zelda were under 20% of the Switch entries.
2. Distribution costs are a fraction of what they once were, especially when distribution is largely digital. On the N64 for example, using cartridges instead of CD-ROMs pushed up the price of games an extra 20% or so compared to the PlayStation.
3. People buy more games nowadays. Consoles like the NES and SNES sold maybe 8 games per console, while handhelds even in the 2010's sold 4 or 5. In contrast, the X360/PS3/PS4 have sales of 11 retail games per console, not including smaller indie titles and DLC, while the Switch is at 8.8 games per console.
4. Smaller downloadable games and DLC now exist, and DLC in particular is frequently attached to full price releases.

If $100 games become the norm, you can expect people to buy fewer games and spend more time on F2P titles.