With GTA 6 Coming, Take-Two Sees "No Pushback" On $70 Games

Take-Two counts itself among the numerous gaming publishers who are now charging $70 for some of their top new releases. The company's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has said the company has not seen a "pushback" to increased prices.

"We're not seeing a pushback on frontline price," Zelnick said during Take-Two's latest earnings event (via VGC). "What we're seeing is consumers are seeking to limit their spending by going either to the stuff they really, really care about--blockbusters--or value. And sometimes it could be both."

Zelnick went on to say that the video game business is a "growth business," and even if comparisons to the pandemic--when revenue surged due to stay-at-home policies--are not as favorable, growth will come back, he predicted. Zelnick also said he believes there is a general economic recession happening now which could be impacting spending behavior in the short term.

"But the overall tailwinds of the industry will continue. This is a growth business. It will remain the fastest-growing part of the entertainment business for the next 20-plus years. And we will have those tailwinds. Now we still have to deliver in that context, and we intend to. But to torture the metaphor, the wind is at our back," Zelnick said.

NBA 2K21, from Take-Two's 2K Sports division, was the company's first $70 game and one of the first games from any publisher to release at that higher price point. Activision followed by making its major new releases, including Modern Warfare II, priced at $70, and PlayStation did as well. Microsoft got on board, too, charging $70 for Redfall as its first game to go for that price this generation. EA and Square Enix raised prices, too, and so did with Nintendo for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Ubisoft's major new games will start at $70, beginning with Skull & Bones, and Sega just recently said it was considering raising prices to $70.

Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden predicted this years ago, saying the AAA market was "unsustainable" and that $60 for a new release would become "difficult" for big games.

In other Take-Two news, the company's latest earnings projections for the future suggest that the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 could be released in 2024.