GTA 6 is a 'bargain' at $80, says Take-Two's boss
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told CNBC that GTA 6 is a real bargain at $80, even with gas and grocery prices up, thanks to the hours you'll put into it.
11th Nov 2026 16:45
Image via Rockstar Games
GTA 6 is a 'bargain' at $80, says Take-Two's boss
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told CNBC that GTA 6 is a real bargain at $80, even with gas and grocery prices up, thanks to the hours you'll put into it.
11th Nov 2026 16:45
Image via Rockstar Games
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick reckons GTA 6 is a real bargain at $80, even with gas and grocery bills climbing, and he made his case on CNBC just over a week before the game launches on November 19.
Speaking to CNBC on November 10, the day after Take-Two's latest earnings, Zelnick admitted that times are tough for a lot of players, but argued that games give you far more hours for your money than most other entertainment, as reported by GameSpot.
"I think the consumer is under pressure, these are challenging times. Inflation has hit average consumers. Food prices are up. Gas prices are way up, and it's taking a toll," Zelnick said, adding that "entertainment is not immune to such forces" as we head into the Christmas season.
Pricing Vice City by the hour
His argument boils down to cost per hour, which is a fairly handy way of looking at a game that plenty of people will probably still be playing years from now. "Even a short video game is 10 hours of engagement on the low end. You can play Grand Theft Auto 5 for hundreds of hours and not get bored," he told CNBC, before saying that if people judge value on "how great it is and how long you can engage with it, interactive entertainment is a great bargain."
GTA 6's Standard Edition costs $80 and the Ultimate Edition is $100, while GTA 5 launched at $60 back in 2013, which GameSpot works out at roughly $85 in today's money. Zelnick has made that inflation point a few times now, and GameSpot notes he's also said Rockstar could have charged more for GTA 6 but chose not to, so the game could reach more people.
The consoles are a different story, mind, as GameSpot points out that PS5 and Xbox Series X|S prices have gone up thanks to component and memory shortages. If you're on an older machine, Xbox One owners can stream GTA 6 through Xbox Cloud Gaming from launch, which we covered in our GTA 6 30fps and PS5 Pro breakdown.
Plenty of people clearly aren't waiting to find out whether it's worth it, either. Zelnick also told CNBC that pre-orders are "vastly exceeding" expectations, which lines up with Take-Two telling investors that GTA 6 pre-orders are tracking far above expectations, and with Sony and Microsoft both saying GTA 6 has broken pre-order records on their stores.
Well, if he's right about those hundreds of hours, that cost-per-hour sum should be looking pretty healthy by Christmas.
About The Author
Jake Bannister
Jake is GGRecon's Co-Founder and Operations Director. You'll find him covering our word game brain teasers, as well as sports games such as Football Manager and EA FC. He's also that teammate on your Rocket League team spamming "Wow!".
