I recently read an article about the price of the highly-anticipated upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto VI. According to the journalist, a number of analysts and businesspeople in the games industry are “hoping” that Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar will price Grand Theft Auto VI higher than the current $70/£70 that has become standard since 2020. The reason for this is simple: it will open the door for other publishers to follow suit, increasing the prices of games across the board.
To me, that sounds absolutely repulsive. The corporations that make up the games industry have literally never made more profit than they’re making right now. Even expensive failures like Concord last year hardly registered as a blip on the charts; these corporations are making money hand over fist in a way they could’ve only dreamed of a few short years ago.
So today I’d like to propose a counter-argument: Grand Theft Auto VI should be free-to-play for everyone.
First of all, let’s clear up this myth surrounding the so-called standard price of video games. In most cases – and especially for AAA games released through corporate publishers – £70 only gets your foot in the door. The true price of fully feature-complete games has been well above £70 for years, and it’s only getting worse. So-called “premium editions” or “deluxe editions” aren’t giving players something extra, they’re cutting out content that was developed alongside the game, fully-integrated into it, and selling it back to us for a premium fee. Some of these special editions can be well over £100 – so that’s the true price tag of most AAA video games in 2025.
We’ve seen a recent trend in which AAA publishers are adding “early” access into deluxe editions of games, too. Charging players extra to play the game on its real release date instead of up to a week later is pretty shitty when you think about it, and just another way that corporations like Take-Two – and others in the AAA space – exploit their players.
Grand Theft Auto VI will have a single-player campaign, and although Take-Two has cheaped out on development, cutting off PC players for some incomprehensible reason, I gotta confess that I’m genuinely looking forward to playing it. The Grand Theft Auto series has usually been good fun, and I’ve been playing since the first title was released in the late ’90s. Remember playing the first Grand Theft Auto with its top-down view? Those were the days, eh?
But let’s be honest: Grand Theft Auto VI is, first and foremost, a multiplayer title. That’s how Rockstar and Take-Two see it, and after the rampant success of Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode, they’re not wrong about that.
Grand Theft Auto V isn’t just any online multiplayer game, though. It’s a game that has been monetised to death, incorporating basically every scummy pay-to-win trend going – and pioneering new ones that other corporations in the games industry have latched onto like parasites. Most games that charge players real money for an in-game currency, skins, cosmetic items, and particularly that charge for gameplay-enhancing vehicles, weapons, and items have something in common: they’re free.
So to reiterate: Grand Theft Auto VI should be free-to-play, and Take-Two should be content with making all of the money in the world from sales of in-game currency and pay-to-win items. Charging even £1 for the game up-front – let alone £90 or £100 as some corporate leaders are soiling themselves in anticipation over – just feels obscene for a game that’s going to be monetised to hell and back.
By including all of these pay-to-win mechanics, Take-Two and Rockstar want to have it all. They want to charge players money up-front, then keep charging them for in-game items, currency, and more. But that isn’t a fair approach – most publishers pick one or the other, and with Grand Theft Auto VI clearly having an online focus, it’s only right that it’s made available for free to everyone who wants to play it.
Do I think that’s a realistic outcome? Well… why not? Corporations are gonna try to grab as much cash as possible, of course, and there will be some desperately disappointed analysts, executives, and investors if Grand Theft Auto VI goes free-to-play from day one. But it would also be a statement; Rockstar and Take-Two could argue that they’re taking a stand and win some free positive PR in the process. Given that the overwhelming bulk of the money Grand Theft Auto V had made (and Grand Theft Auto VI intends to make) comes from in-game transactions anyway, it wouldn’t actually be a huge loss to Take-Two. Grand Theft Auto VI will still be hugely profitable.
So that’s my proposal! Forget these desperate attempts to start the base price of the game at £80 or £90 and just go free-to-play. It’s the right thing to do for an online multiplayer game that’s sure to be crammed with pay-to-win mechanics, an in-game currency, and more cosmetic items and skins than you can count. It would also be a wonderful middle finger to corporate leaders, investors, and analysts who are already making more money than they’ve ever made before and are just being greedy. Plus, from Take-Two’s point of view, it would be a marketing and PR masterstroke if handled well.
So go on, Take-Two and Rockstar! It’s the right thing to do, it’s bound to score you plenty of free publicity and positive press, and it would be hilarious to boot. The Grand Theft Auto series has long satirised corporate America, get-rich-quick schemes, and greed… so why not pull the ultimate power move by making the newest entry in the series totally free for everyone to play? I think it’s a fantastic idea!
Will Grand Theft Auto VI really be free-to-play? Maybe we should start a rumour that it will be and see how panicked the games industry and its corporate overlords get!
Grand Theft Auto VI is still in development and is planned to be released on Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 consoles in late 2025. Grand Theft Auto VI is the copyright of Rockstar Games and/or Take-Two Interactive Software. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Multiple sources have reported on the “hope” in the games industry for a price hike from Take-Two and Rockstar when Grand Theft Auto VI launches. I’ve linked a handful below.
Trekking with Dennis 