The cost of console gaming has become significantly more expensive in recent months. Sony hiked the price of PS5 hardware in April, which means a new PS5 now starts at $600, and a PS5 Pro now costs $900. More recently, Sony raised the price of PlayStation Plus, which is required for online gaming. Microsoft, too, has increased the price of the Xbox Series X and S, although it has cut the price of Xbox Game Pass.
GTA 6 is probably the most anticipated video game of all time, and it is expected to break sales records. But it is also coming out on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S only — there is no PC version at launch. This means that you need a modern console to play it, and there will be many who will be looking to buy one for the first time just to play GTA 6 this November.
But could the high cost of a PlayStation or Xbox in 2026 put potential new console gamers off? Could the rising cost of entry limit the potential success of even GTA 6? I put that to Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar parent company Take-Two, ahead of the company’s latest financial results. He dismissed the idea, pointing to a ‘if you build it, they will come’ attitude among consumers, even during economically tough times. But, within that bullishness, Zelnick did express an awareness that consumers are feeling the money pressure.
“In real dollars, the cost of frontline video games has declined materially in the last 30 years,” Zelnick said. “Frontline prices have not gone up very much even in the context of inflation. But from our point of view around here, what we can do to make a difference is always deliver an experience that is so much better than what people pay for, that they’re thrilled to buy our titles. Our job is to make the best entertainment on earth and that’s true across the board.
“If you give people what they want in the entertainment business, they will come out for it. But I am sensitive to the fact that so many people are facing economic challenges.”
When publicly traded companies make their financial projections, they list assumptions that factor into their calculations. This current financial year is expected to break all sorts of revenue records for Take-Two, which you’d expect given the release of GTA 6. But within that is an assumption that the console install base continues to grow. That is, people continue to buy the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.
Is that a given though? During the last financial quarter, Sony sold just 1.5 million PS5 consoles, down 46% year-over-year. Microsoft doesn’t report console sales, but did say recently that Xbox hardware revenues had plummeted 33% year-over-year. And what about the install base GTA 6 is launching into? PS5 has sold more than 93 million units, as of the end of March 2026. Again, Microsoft does not report Xbox Series X and S sales, but we know the consoles lag far behind the PS5. Zelnick has said in interviews that the console install base is not quite at 150 million yet, and we’re nearly six years into the generation.
So, with GTA 6 launching in just six months, how does Zelnick feel about the console install base as it stands, and Take-Two’s assumption that it will grow.
“We feel fine about the install base now,” Zelnick said. “Obviously we believe that there’ll be growth in the install base between now and the launch of GTA 6, partially related to the holiday season and normal growth, and console sales occurs around that time of year. And also we do think that GTA 6 will drive some growth.”
The release date of GTA 6 here is very important: November 19, 2026. That’s just a week before this year’s Black Friday sales event, which falls on November 27. Will the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S get any decent discounts for this sales period? Will Sony and Microsoft have enough console stock to capitalize on heightened interest, given the rising cost of manufacturing and distribution, and memory shortages caused by the AI boom?
There are a lot of factors in play, but you can’t help but feel the release of GTA 6 is one of the biggest moments for this console generation, perhaps even its most important moment. And we haven’t even spoken about the price of GTA 6 itself. Zelnick talks about offering value for money, and often points out, as he did to me this week, that the cost of console gaming hasn’t risen all that much when you take into account inflation. Does this indicate GTA 6 will cost north of $70? Some analysts think it will cost $80, others even higher.
We’ve got plenty more from our Strauss Zelnick interview, including confirmation of the GTA 6 release date, putting to bed delay fears, as well as his thoughts on GTA 6 marketing, which is expected to kick off alongside pre-orders this summer.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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