Rockstar Games announced Wednesday that Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost $79.99 when it’s released on Nov. 19. An Ultimate Edition of the game, with “premium vehicles, weapons, apparel, and action” will cost $99.99. The announcement, ahead of preorders opening on Thursday, answers one of the big questions surrounding the game’s release: Would it cost $100?
That answer, of course, is no. Speculation that GTA 6 could cost $100 for the base game has been rampant, with consumers worried that a three-figure price tag could raise the base price for video games across the industry. Publishers like Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Xbox have all raised prices on select video games—usually the big budget, blockbuster ones—to $80.
Most games have settled around the $70 mark, but $80 games have been normalized, too. (That’s on top of hardware price increases, which have gone up significantly due to component shortages.)
Rockstar Games also said Wednesday that physical versions of the game will not come with a disc. They have download codes inside. Both the physical and digital versions of the game will allow pre-loading beginning on Nov. 12, so it’s likely you’ll start seeing physical versions of the game on store shelves and in mailboxes before the actual Nov. 19 release date.
Whatever it’s priced at, GTA 6 is poised to be an instant mega-seller. Grand Theft Auto 5, more than a decade old, has sold 230 million copies. Rockstar Games still sells millions of copies of GTA 5 each year. The Grand Theft Auto franchise, overall, has sold more than 470 million units, according to an investor presentation in May. During that call, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick called GTA 6 “arguably the most anticipated entertainment property of all time.”
Rockstar Games still hasn’t given an indication that a new version of Grand Theft Auto Online will launch alongside GTA 6; much of its marketing specifically sets expectations of “a single-player experience.” While GTA 5 continues to put up big numbers, GTA Online is driving much of the franchise’s revenue. Leaked data verified by Kotaku suggests GTA Online generates $1.3 million a day. That adds up to roughly $10 million per week.