While the $80 price tag for the standard edition of Grand Theft Auto 6 might be a bit too much for some, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has said that fans shouldn’t expect a price cut or discount anytime soon. Speaking to CNBC, the CEO of Rockstar Games’ parent company noted that plans for the game’s price tag have been quite deliberate, and even pointed to the fact that Grand Theft Auto 5 didn’t get discounted for a while.
That being said, however, Zelnick isn’t entirely against the idea of discounts altogether. While Take-Two’s pricing has been established, he has left it up to stores to decide whether or not they want to offer discounts. “We establish our pricing, and then the storefronts can do what they wish. We don’t have any ability to control that. So, if they reduce the price, they’re obviously reducing their margin on the sale.”
Further discussing retailer policy, Zelnick said that stores were free to offer discounts on bundled items. Through this, we could see new console bundles emerge even without the direct support of Sony, Microsoft, or Take-Two Interactive, with stores simply opting to reward buyers with some discounts on larger purchases.
Pointing to the 2013 release of Grand Theft Auto 5 on PS3 and Xbox 360, Zelnick noted that its pricing was preserved for “much longer than a standard release and entertainment property.” However, it is worth noting that the industry has changed quite a bit in the 13 years since, and discounts have become increasingly common for most games, regardless of whether or not they are AAA releases. Acknowledging this, Zelnick said that the price will go down “eventually”. However, this could likely be years after the November 19th release of Grand Theft Auto 6.
With pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 having been kicked off back in June, Take-Two and Rockstar are now getting ready for the full marketing push ahead of the title’s release. An “extended look” at the game has been scheduled to be shown on Netflix on August 27th at 3 PM ET. Fans who don’t have a subscription will have to wait for six hours before the same content shows up on the game’s official YouTube channel at 9 PM ET.
While this Netflix timed exclusivity has been a controversial decision, Zelnick has noted that it is “one of the hors d’oeuvres” that make up the marketing plans for Grand Theft Auto 6. “There’s appetizers, main course, and dessert to follow,” he said. Zelnick also went on to call the partnership between Take-Two and Netflix “a groundbreaking partnership that Rockstar arranged” due to the GTA developer’s work with the streaming giant to release smartphone versions of older titles.
On the subject of Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders, Zelnick said, “Nobody’s ever seen anything like this before, at Take-Two or in the industry.” While he is certainly happy about the numbers, he noted that it’s still too early to celebrate since “you can cancel a pre-order” and the company doesn’t know “how it’ll translate into sales.”
