the $2B budget and $100 price tag is setting a bad precedent compared to that $50 goty sweep

I keep seeing the $2B budget and the $100 price tag talked about like they're the same thing, and it's starting to feel like people are missing the point. Rockstar can spend whatever they want, that's their call. But when a game pulls in $1B in pre-orders before launch, every other publisher is watching. They're not thinking "wow Rockstar made a great game," they're thinking "we can charge $100 too."

Then you look at the game that swept the 2025 Game Awards. Charlie Cox and Andy Serkis in the cast, $10M budget, $50 price tag. It was made like a AAA game but got called indie, and it still won almost every nomination it had. That game proved you don't need a $2B budget to make something people love, and you don't need to charge $100 to be successful.

I'm not saying GTA 6 won't be worth the money. I'm saying the price tag and the budget are two different conversations. A massive budget doesn't automatically mean a game has to cost more. It just means Rockstar spent a lot. And when the pre-order numbers are that high, the industry learns the wrong lesson. Everyone else will try to justify $80 or $90 or $100 because "GTA 6 did it."

The hobby we grew up on is already getting more expensive every year. If this becomes the new normal, we're gonna look back at $70 games the way we look at $60 games now. And that's not great.

Do you think Rockstar's pricing actually moves the whole industry, or are publishers just gonna copy the $100 tag because they see the pre-order revenue?

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Source: r/GTA6 · Curated content.