- By Alex David
- Wed, 31 Dec 2025 02:54 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
There’s one thing that all GTA fans agree on: it is the price. For months, a rumour had spread that GTA 6 would launch with a $100 price tag, which would make it one of the most expensive standard-edition games of all time. Now, a former Rockstar Games employee has doused that fear with some cold water and come forward with more information about how the game could work in practice.
And yet here’s the thing: the $100 price panic may have been a bit overdone.
How Much Will GTA 6 Cost?
The $100 standard edition will not be the case with GTA 6, ex-Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij explained. Vermeij told GamesHub1 that Rockstar has never mentioned this kind of pricing before and it all comes from online gossip rather than any actual sources of information.
By this I mean that Rockstar doesn’t need to ask for higher prices from the beginning. The studio’s business model, long-term, leans heavily on its online ecosystem. Similar to GTA Online, and unlike Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA 6 is believed to remain a cash cow for many years following its release courtesy of in-game purchases and updates.
Vermeij added that it's a lot more logical to keep the vanilla game dovetailed with the current industry standard at about $70. A lower cost of entry attracts a larger player base, which in turn bolsters the online component and long-term monetisation. To take $30 off upfront would be to simply limit our audience and not significantly improve that end result.
That said, don't rule out any sort of premium or deluxe edition that may be geared to those willing to spend more to get along with their purchase. But it is unlikely that, for most players, the standard edition will push new boundaries in pricing.
Will AI be used in the making of GTA 6?
Although Vermeij quelled any worries about GTA 6’s price, he was more candid about the scale of the game’s development. The game has been heavily rumoured to almost cost $2 billion, which would potentially make Grand Theft Auto 6 the most expensive video game ever produced.
“They squish us with overtime and it’s big underestimations at the beginning of game development,” he says, explaining that in modern game development — hardware aside — people are now its greatest cost. Up to 70 per cent of a game is art-related work, and much of that work is repetitive and manual.
Here’s where AI and procedural generation can help coordinate.
- Rockstar could, Vermeij offered as an example, automate tedious jobs through AI:
- Rigging animation skeletons
- Fixing collision meshes
- Creating lower level-of-detail assets
- Creating repetitive areas like interiors and alleys
Assisting with large-scale crowd animations
Many of these tasks have traditionally required costly motion capture sessions and laborious manual workflows. AI tools could help speed this along significantly. Crucially, Vermeij reiterated, this is not an effort to replace artists but rather to make developers more efficient and remove some of the drudgery from their job so they can concentrate on creative work.
GTA 6 could, in fact, be the most expensive game ever created and that’s only because future games will draw heavily on AI to lower those execution costs.
Is GTA 6 Delayed Again?
The release date of GTA 6 has already used the patience of fans. It was originally scheduled for 2025, then moved to 2026 and November 19, 2026 as the its most prevalent release date.
And now, speculation about a further delay has just resurfaced online – much to fans’ dismay. The truth is: There is no official confirmation of any new delay. Rockstar has not announced any shift further than November 2026.
At present, these delay rumours are just that – rumours. For now, the release window holds until Rockstar tells us otherwise.
The Bottom Line
GTA 6: For all the rumours we’ve had over the past few months, it’s unlikely that GTA 6 will come with the standard $100 price tag. Rockstar just doesn’t need to from a business standpoint. At the same time, the game could represent a corner turning when it comes to how large-scale games are developed, with AI taking on more of those mind-numbing development tasks.
And as for delays, there’s no new news that we can confirm. GTA 6 could still be a long way off, but for now, fans can at least let out a sigh of relief when it comes to pricing and timing.