Speaking today at iicon, a new conference for video game executivesTake-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the hotly debated question of how much Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost. He declined to confirm the game’s price, but hinted at the potentially super-premium price that has been floated in the past.
“Consumers pay for the value you bring to them, and our job is to charge much less for the value delivered,” Zelnick said. “How you feel about something you buy is the intersection between the product itself and what you pay for. Consumers should feel that the product itself is amazing and that the price they were charged was fair for what they got.”
He went on to mention that game prices have actually gotten cheaper over the years, referring to the fact that major game releases have been priced at $60 or at most $70 for over a decade, compared to the higher inflation rates seen in the broader economy.
“If you look at it through that lens, that doesn’t make much sense. But that’s not the lens we look through. Instead, we look at… how we deliver something amazing and how we make sure that what people pay for it looks very reasonable.”
Zelnick also said that he is “terrified” by the question of how to measure the success of GTA 6, but that he and the teams are more focused on delivering a fantastic experience than worrying about its performance.
“What we’re thinking about is making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on Earth, in history, and it’s a pretty daunting challenge. If we do that, and if we’re serving our customers, then the benefits will take care of themselves.”
That said, he followed up with a quick joke that he “thinks a lot of people will call in sick on November 19th.”
Elsewhere in the talk, Zelnick gave (faint) hope to LA Noire fans that a sequel might one day happen.
“Generally speaking, we’re thinking about doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property,” he said. “There’s nothing to announce specifically about LA Noire, and if there was, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me. But in any case, with respect to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that is passionate about working on it?”
For more on what could be the biggest video game launch ever, check out the latest on the stolen data from the Rockstar hack saga and Zelnick’s comments on GTA 6’s rumored digital-only release. GTA 6 will launch on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and we will stay up to date with everything leading up to its launch.
Bo Moore is the senior director of technology at IGN. You can find it online @usebomswisely.