GTA VI Priced at $80. Did Rockstar Leave Money on the Table?

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I created a fun AI image for the roundup that Chris, I think you and I both love, showing it here on the screen. I didn't know that uh Gemini still was able to use IP. I guess it is cuz you got you got Mario and Pokémon in here. But uh the thing that I wanted to cover two of the the insights here. I had this platform that was pretty cool. I could survey the audience. And so in real time you could see people's reaction to certain questions. And so I asked, "What is the state of the games industry versus last year?" It was a five-point scale. On the bad end it was shite, a little worse, same, a little better, or yeah. And so as you can imagine, I think it was, you know, 57% that basically were on top or bottom two box. The sentiment of how people were feeling in the room was a little bit negative. You add same to worse and now you're not doing so great. So that felt

a little icky. But one of the things that we talked about that was positive, we asked by the end of 2027 GTA 6 will not have launched, underperform versus the hype, met expectations, or holy sales. Holy sales wins with 41%. And so I think we even said meeting expectations was like 2 billion in the first, what was it, like couple weeks? So I think everyone thinks it's going to just absolutely crush it. That kind of leads us in to the next topic, which is we didn't know this at the time that we did it, but GTA just announced their pricing. And so I got this from Game File. Rockstar confirmed GTA 6 will cost more than the average game. So well, same as if you look at what Mario Mario was on the Switch, too. So it's going to launch at $80 for the standard skew and $100 for deluxe. It's going to be on November 19th for PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. No, it's not on PC

for a little while later. So, here's a couple things we didn't know, or at least I don't think I knew. One is it it's a single-player only experience. There's no word on the online experience, and it's obviously not PC at launch. And then they're also launching disc-free. So, the box copies will launch with a download code. So, I guess you go to the store, you buy a box, and there's like a slip of paper with a code in it. That's funny that they're even doing that at all, but I'm sure retail is making them do that to make sure that they get the retail skew. Titles are on 60. They've been that way since 2007 through 2020, and then it's been $70 since the start of the current console generation. GTA 5, so the last edition launched in 2013 at 60 bucks. Can you I mean, I I just sometimes can't remember that it's been that long since the last GTA. GTA 5 had 230 million copies sold since its 2013 launch. So, here's what's in the deluxe SKU. Phil's going to love this stuff. More in-game content overall, including

multiple exclusive in-game stores, a set of collectible classic cars, plus exclusive vehicles, clothes, and weapons. An exclusive illegal goods store. Great, like we're teaching the next generation good stuff. Unlike Take-Two's usual deluxe edition, this $100 version does not include early access to the game. So, I thought that was really interesting. I mean, mostly these days, you always get early access. So, Adam, now that we have pricing, I know you've been dying to talk about this one. What do you think?
Yeah, I like this play. I think GTA can price whatever they want.
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Like this could have easily been 100, and would still sell absolutely well. And I think as an industry, this should be celebrated as like this is giving us a little bit more breathing room. Getting from that 70 to 80. And I think any of these games that are like over 100 hours of incredibly deep and quality and engagement. Like Elden Rings, Sky rims. These should be 80 bucks.

And I think this gives a little bit more pricing ceiling because I believe that they're worth it. And in general in terms of like the premium PC console industry, I think
[clears throat]
we're in a good spot in terms of like players accepting sort of a stratification of pricing between 40, 50, 70, and 80 base edition games based on the scope of the game. In terms of the deluxe edition, I I just reacted there. I I didn't actually know it didn't include an early access. That just seems like a weird thing to cut out. You know, and I can only speculate why they didn't do it, but that just feels like an odd thing not to include. But everything in the deluxe edition is just optional. Like optional but slightly gameplay impacting. So I think they're doing the right thing in terms of like a solid like there's a lot of value in the $100 SKU. But either way, this is GTA. There's a going to be a ton of price and sensitive buyers. They're going to get a ton of attached to that ultimate edition.
Yeah, Chris, like I don't think there's any such thing as price in elasticity with anything GTA related, right?

No, and I think a lot a lot of people are out there basically bitching because they left money on the table by not having a $100 SKU. And I'm like I kind of always felt that they were going to be more player friendly to get them into the ecosystem. And $80, even though that is a high price, the Wall Street guys may be disappointed, but they shouldn't be because I I I I think this is a the better price. I think it also confirms that online is not coming at launch, which is what I've been saying for a long time. But I still think that's a shock to some people, I suppose. I'm actually a little bit disappointed in the high end SKU. I thought they would have like another high end SKU that would be more compelling and make the average selling price even higher.
They they could could easily done a 120, a skew, right? I've just like with crazy but if they don't have online at launch, there's a lot fewer bits of content they could use.
Yeah, I mean early access, I know why that is a little bit controversial because they want to everyone to experience it

without spoilers, and so that might have been off the table. I don't know if they did that for the last GTA. But anyway, so I'm a little bit surprised that there's not like a third like super skew, you know, like an insane skew that gives you a statue for $200 or something.
Yeah, there is a limited edition. There is a collector's edition. It's just like that is so incremental. You don't have to worry about
Okay, okay. I wouldn't be surprised about having codes because I think people are doing they're doing that already with a lot of games,
Yeah, this game is big. There's [laughter] no way it's going to fit on a disc. We're we're now on a digital only world. Yeah, I think anyone who's honestly thinking disc, whatever.
I think I'm treating this as a happy medium, right? Cuz I had it set assumed that it was going to be $70, and then they were going to have a $100 skew and a $120 skew, but the average price is going to be over $90, right? And so basically it split the difference, right? Because between 80 and 100, you know, the average price is going to be in the 90s, right? Probably, so
Adam, what do you think the attach rate is going to be with GTA 6 and the consoles? Like when

Chris and I, we were talking about this, like 40% was was like what, okay? Chris, is that what you said? Like do we think this is going to be like 50 or more?
During a pre-order phase, you're seeing much north of 50% 60% attached to the premium skew, and then when thing comes out, the launch phase, you're still seeing this like golden cohort very high attached. If you're looking at it on a longer ultimate phase, then you're looking at
Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam. She's talking about attach rate to the hardware.
To hardware. Sorry, sorry.
But like this is PS5 basically only. Like this is PS5 and Xbox.
And Xbox.
I do they said so that was the surprise. Sorry, I thought they would get a Xbox Series S like past, dude, because that's the that this thing works series S you
Oh, that's true.
But that wasn't the announcement dude. That's going to be the shittiest skew ever.
Oh, what what do we think the attached rate of the skews going to be to hardware? So
Current install base.
Install base, yeah.

Always in like what's the percentage of people that it's going to play on PS5?
On both.
On both.
Dude, that's the most simple way of looking at this. What rate to the 150 million install base of hardware, right? Is it a 10% attached rate, 20%, 30%?
I have I have a question. So GTA 5 base game sales generated between 6 to let's say 9 billion globally. I think they sold 230 million copies and GTA online has grossed over 5 billion in lifetime revenue. What do you reckon will the online of GTA 6 be higher than the base sales?
I don't think that no.
Oh, we don't
Online will be higher than base game. No.
Yeah.
But I thought those numbers look low. Why do they look really low?
Yeah, it's like it the the leak the leak had it yeah, the leak had it that there was like the 500 million annual run rate coming from GTA online over time. Right? Like again, you're just looking at what's the different timelines. The base edition is going to clean house for

the next few years, right? The live online especially if it's delayed will mean like okay, year two year three then you're going to start to have a stronger baseline. This absolutely could be over a 500 million annual run rate online opportunity for this game, right? If they execute well because GTA 5's online if you remember like they inflated the out of the economy and it was basically broken expansion over expansion. So if they can set up a better foundation with this game and learn their lesson, yeah, definitely.
Mhm.
Yeah. I my model is basically 1.5 billion when they get going.
A year?
Yeah.
A year. 1.1 to 1.5.
And no egregious monetization. You think they're going to avoid any like loot boxes or gotcha?
No, but they the first one already had egregious monetization. It had a casino. [laughter] Like you could buy whatever car you wanted.
I think they got one taste of that casino thing and they're like, "This, dude. We're doing that." Because that really did monetize them. And it was a

daily appointment mechanic as well.
It refreshed every day, so people would come in, you know.
So, I don't think there's loot boxes, but like they don't need loot boxes to have crazy monetization either.
Yeah.
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