GTA 6: Zelnick Admits That Raising the Price of the PS5 and Xbox 'Isn't Good'

The PS5 now costs $649.99 and the Xbox Series X $799.99, and even Zelnick admits that the price hike “isn’t good,” though he doesn’t think it will slow down GTA 6.

GTA 6’s release date is getting closer and closer, but Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two (Rockstar Games’ parent company), just admitted during the latest earnings call that the price hike for consoles “isn’t a good thing” for the industry. The admission comes just three months before the game hits stores, right when many fans are still deciding which console they’ll play it on.

The statement comes at an awkward time for fans, with the PS5 now costing $649.99 following its second price hike of the year, and the Xbox Series X priced at $799.99 since August 1. Sony and Microsoft attribute the price hike to the global RAM crisis, driven by demand from artificial intelligence data centers.

What Zelnick Said About the Price of the PS5 and Xbox

During the August 7 investor call, Zelnick was blunt when discussing the rising cost of hardware:

“The increase in hardware costs is not a good thing, and we’re not going to argue that it is.”

The CEO acknowledged that a lower console price would be preferable, simply because it would put more consoles in the hands of gamers. But he didn’t stop there, adding that, despite the price hike, he doesn’t expect this to take a toll on the launch of their flagship title.

Could the Price Hike Slow Down GTA 6?

Zelnick expressed confidence that Rockstar can weather the storm. As he explained, the player base at launch will reflect the company’s original projections, and he would only be concerned about a scenario in which that base were smaller than expected. Right now, he insists, that’s not the case.

His argument is based on the very formula that has made Rockstar the most profitable publisher in the industry: as long as there’s a game that people truly want, they’ll pay whatever it takes for the console that runs it. With Jason and Lucia as the main draw and the Leonida map that’s been in the works for years, Take-Two is betting heavily that not even an extra $150 per console will dampen the excitement for GTA 6.

The other insight Zelnick shared about the PC

Incidentally, Zelnick took advantage of the call to share a figure that speaks volumes about where the business has shifted. Twenty years ago, the PC accounted for barely 1 to 2% of Take-Two’s sales. Today, for the company’s multiplatform games, the PC accounts for between 40 and 50% of sales. This is no small matter, because if the PC is accounting for an increasing share of sales, price increases for consoles have less of an impact on Take-Two’s bottom line than they did twenty years ago.

The table makes it clear why Take-Two isn’t worried, because even if the price hike for consoles scares off some of the audience, more and more players are waiting to play the game directly on their computers.

Zelnick didn’t provide details on whether Rockstar will adjust the price of GTA 6 on its own, or whether memory shortages will continue to drive up hardware costs leading up to the launch. The only thing that’s certain, for now, is that anyone who wants to play it on a console this year is going to feel the pinch in their wallet even before opening the box. You can follow all the latest news on the launch in more news by Leonida Bay.