$100 today is about $40 in 1990. In those days games were made by a handful of people or even a single individual in one of two years of development. Chris Sawyer started work on the 1994 classic Transport Tycoon in 1992 and wrote the entire codebase in x86 Assembly. The price isn’t really that crazy considering the comparatively massive undertaking that is GTA6 development.
Having said that, it’s rare nowadays for any AAA game to release anywhere near its best state, so it tends to be worth it to wait even if money isn’t the concern.
GTAV has made over ten billion dollars, one billion of that in its first three days. They would have earned more than double its entire lifetime development costs (estimated at ~200-250 million) if they’d charged a twentieth of what they did.
$100 today is about $40 in 1990. In those days games were made by a handful of people or even a single individual in one of two years of development. Chris Sawyer started work on the 1994 classic Transport Tycoon in 1992 and wrote the entire codebase in x86 Assembly. The price isn’t really that crazy considering the comparatively massive undertaking that is GTA6 development.
Having said that, it’s rare nowadays for any AAA game to release anywhere near its best state, so it tends to be worth it to wait even if money isn’t the concern.
They also sold far, far fewer units, made less money per sale, and were not nearly as profitable long term.
GTAV has made over ten billion dollars, one billion of that in its first three days. They would have earned more than double its entire lifetime development costs (estimated at ~200-250 million) if they’d charged a twentieth of what they did.