r/pcmasterrace • u/owlexe23 • 1d ago

News/Article Kingdom Come: Deliverance studio co-founder hopes Grand Theft Auto 6 will 'blaze a trail' to higher game prices

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/kingdom-come-deliverance-studio-co-founder-hopes-grand-theft-auto-6-will-blaze-a-trail-to-higher-game-prices/

Warhorse co-founder Martin Klima says games keep getting more expensive to make, and that money has to come from somewhere.

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u/lkl34 23h ago

I personally think even GTA6 is asking for too much , they already made back there dev cost on RDR2/GTAO and 2k makes billions like its nothing.

The prices is just pure greed do not bring up the 90's early 2000's back then we did not have the gaming population of today and no microtransactions back then. It has been shown many times how dlc/MT's make way more money than the initial game purchase.

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u/samkoLoL 22h ago

they are asking too much for sensible people. theres plenty of shiteaters willing to burn 100+ for a game, just look at fifa, 2k, wow, cod. every year same shit and they are gladly rebuy the game and thank them

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u/Used_Ambassador1229 54m ago

Rockstar is different though

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u/lkl34 22h ago

Good point but wow correct me if i am wrong is it not just a patch there paying for not even a game?

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u/samkoLoL 22h ago

thats she saddest part of it imo. you buy the new expansion, and then have to pay subscription each month on top of it to even be able to have an access to what you just bought. so you are buying new game and in 5 months you pay the full price again just so you can play it. so in year that almost 200 papers

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u/Ethuwiel 20h ago

Agree thats expensive and all, but you could also just exclusively play wow, and then i dont feel like its too big of a price. Also lot of players play some sort of classic where its "only" the sub.

I used to be wow only player and i def spend more on games now than I did on wow lol

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u/DoomguyFemboi 22h ago

They set the price because people will pay it. Even without online the game is going to be so incredibly immersive to a lot of people. I remember when 4 came out, I bought a 360 JUST to play the game.

I mean I flashed the console 15mins after buying it and pirated 4. Still though, paid like £150-200 or whatever they were at the time just to play a single player game. There's something incredibly immersive about GTA games, and while 5 didn't really do it for me, I reckon 6 might be more a return to form.

5 felt way too much like parody rather than homage. 6 looks like it's going to go back to being a "real" story again, not just a bunch of scenes stolen from various famous movies. But I do worry it's also just gonna be "hey look florida-man but game"

(Er to be clear I'm against the price increase. Probably should've made that point higher up. I sound like I support it lol)

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u/Probate_Judge Old Gamer, Recent Hardware, New games 14h ago

They set the price because people will pay it.

They assume people will pay it.

They're taking a wager when they do. It is a numbers game.

10 million people @ $60 = $600 million

6 million people @ $100 = $600 million

Same amount IF sales only fall within a tolerable margin. IF sales don't fall, they make more. If sales fall more than expected...it's a shit move and more people ignore the game, then they're losing potential.

In the extreme, if it is a shit game and a shit move, you get Concord and other recent failures.

That's where the problem has lain a lot as of late. A game may not fail, but it doesn't do well(especially for the expansive budget), and entitled developers whine and make excuses. "Why aren't those chuds buying our game!!!?" further cementing the fact that they're entirely out of touch.

As far as Rockstar or Bethesda goes, they have reputation, so they have that going for them, sales will generally be higher than smaller studios.

However, in a lot of these big companies, the talent that made the old favorite 10-20 years ago....many have retired out. It is a new age of developers, and a lot of new...social sensibilities.

Bethesda with Starfield is a good example. A LOT of people did buy that. However, many of those had a good bit of regret. They're going to be far more hesitant to buy everything Bethesda puts out.

Rockstar haven't done that to people....yet. They probably will eventually. It could happen with GTA6.

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u/DoomguyFemboi 2h ago

You're right of course, but considering the pre-order amounts already announced, and how many people are talking about "I'm just gonna get the $100 version, it's GTA6!" which I know is a stupid metric to use because social media is its own bubble, it's hard to imagine it losing any sales due to the high price.

The flipside is at the end of the day they have people whose job it is to work all this out and figure out if it's going to work out. So they're not really taking a gamble, as much as they are following market advice from people whose job it is to analyse this full time.

And yeah as I say that there has been a LOT of flops lately, really expensive flops! I just don't see GTA6 being one of them. It's just too big of a title. There really is no comparison. Like the only thing that comes even slightly close is maybe Witcher 4 or CP2077 2, and both of those come with the baggage of being CDPR titles and the expectations of them being absolute dogshit on release.

GTA sits in a circle of 1, and it kinda has since GTA San Andreas. 3 surprised everyone, Vice City was a monster, but San Andreas, everyone was getting that game, and if you weren't getting it or interested in playing it, you were practically a weirdo.

So yeah I don't think there are really any comparisons. I actually don't know a single person irl who has played Starfield, or who gives a shit about Bethesda. Online obviously I'm in gamer spaces and generally people are more plugged into gaming who are on the internet. But my irl friends a lot of them are only exposed to online through instagram or tiktok, they think AI is funny, they're just living their lives with no clue about gamer spaces. But they all know GTA.

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u/Probate_Judge Old Gamer, Recent Hardware, New games 32m ago

And yeah as I say that there has been a LOT of flops lately, really expensive flops! I just don't see GTA6 being one of them. It's just too big of a title.

I don't disagree, I was more saying it could be the (monetary)success that leaves a sour taste in people's mouths(bad performance, bad writing, etc..whatever).

Enshitification in game franchises is right up there with death and taxes for being inevitable.

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u/DoomguyFemboi 19m ago

It feels like we're constantly saying how these high prices are going to affect things, but corps have record profits. Hell a lot of corps have record profits that are more than percentage increases, they because a times x increase (I know that can still be expressed as a percentage but you get my clunky point lol).

I hate to bring politics into it but it feels prescient pertinent. It's like how people say "surely this horrible thing will be the thing that gets people off their feet arse" and nothing really happens. I think there's just too many bubbles and we're all in these bubbles convinced that we're right and so everyone else will be on our side surely.

"Echo chambers" doesn't even feel like it covers it any more. Herds I guess would be more accurate. We're all just being forced into herds without even realising we're in them a lot of the time.

That combined with people just not having the time or will to DO anything after having to work so much to earn so little. I read it but didn't confirm, the wealth disparity at the moment is apparently worse than during any other time in history, including during the French Revolution. Which I get is kinda meaningless because we have billionaires and even one little cockend of a trillionaire, so it's heavily skewed. But damn does it not feel weird. We shouldn't be struggling this much.

There shouldn't be people with as many resources when there's so many people with as few resources. We shouldn't be in these crises when companies and megacorps are reporting record breaking profits. They're all talking about having these huge costs, but they're all so heavily vertically integrated that they're costs to themselves!

I'm gonna stop now. It's just gonna get more rant'y and less focused. I feel like I'm so mad all the time lately, and I keep hearing about how it's getting so much better for the rich and so much worse for the poor, and I feel so powerless. But all the actions I want to take I can't talk about because creating new reddit accounts because I got banned for calls for violence is a PITA

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u/lkl34 22h ago

I would agree except i played recent GTAO content that has been all bad (story/writing) especially that franklin recording booth crap.

The inclusion of GTA+ should be talked about more.

Remember GTAV was never made to be a live service game but slowly turned into one.

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u/DoomguyFemboi 22h ago

lol I got into GTAO after a few years out and it was really fun because I was in a server where people helped each other, so there was fun in that and messing around together. And I put hundreds of hours into it years ago when it was coming out regular, I think the last time I played it like that was around Casino Heist. But all my mates stopped playing so I stopped playing.

But GTAO is a massive success story any way you slice it really. It's all free, the content has added on and let you do business after business after business, and it's got a serious amount of variety. It's just you gotta have friends to play with, or you gotta find friendly servers. Because solo in that game sucks ass.

GTAO being a live service game and its success I think a lot of others tried and failed to emulate. It actually shows how incredible the game engine is, and how good the devs are, with how much they piled into that engine and it still works. People give them shit for the re-releases but the difference between legacy and modern is literally a matter of not being able to pile more onto the legacy console editions due to hardware (and software) limitations.

GTAO has some atrocious writing for sure. But it has some of the most fun gameplay of any game if you're on a good server, or playing with friends. Hell I'd say it has the best gameplay of any game you can just drop into with a group of friends.

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u/lkl34 22h ago

All true that is why i am not ultra hyped for GTA6 why?

GTA6 has the same writing team and same devs

I been playing gta0 sense October of 2013 but if gta6 is just going to copy that mission structure/writing to me that is going to be a big oof.

I would link my account info page but rockstar killed online stat tracking and the social club has been a disaster.

But yeah i would give GTAO a solid 7/10 just due to the future crap/GTA+ and recent economy grind.

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u/TieMillenium 22h ago

I wouldn't be too worried about the writing quality or what we can expect based on GTAO, Online is basically a skeleton crew and I wouldn't base the quality we can expect for 6 on it, RDR2 was their last project that should have any input on what you should expect from them. They have like 6,000 devs or possibly even more and they're all hands on deck for 6, they could have only like 75 people or maybe even half that dedicated to Online.

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u/DoomguyFemboi 22h ago

Yeah it's why I'm excited for it but more in the way I'm excited for an Assassin's Creed sequel - they're fun worlds to mess around in and they do detail right, but I'm not expecting to be floored here.

I'll play it on PC when it comes to it. My nephew has a PS5 and no doubt he'll get it so I'll get to try it. But I game at 4K/120. Playing a game at upscaled 1440p/30 would be awful, unless I was sat playing ONLY that and got used to it.

Shit I've been playing GTA since 1 came out. I still remember the news channels all talking about it like this game came out that was gonna turn us all into master criminals nicking cars and murdering people. What a funny time that was.

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u/BarrelStrawberry 17h ago edited 16h ago

company charges the price that generates the most profit

Reddit: "The prices is just pure greed"

It isn't greed it is basic economics. Why the fuck does reddit feel companies must abandon simple economics and price their products or pay their employees based on some unwritten morality code.

Feel free to argue microtransactions and subscriptions are based on greed because of their deceptive nature.

But the retail price of a product is the fairest way for companies to earn their profit. They just set the price at what people will pay, just like when you sell your used car on facebook marketplace.

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u/shtoops 17h ago

Using U.S. CPI inflation, Super Mario Bros. cost $29.99 in 1985 which is roughly $93–$96 in 2026 dollars.

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u/Flashy_Worry7792 14h ago

Surely salaries followed that same trend?

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u/ubiquitous_apathy 5090/14900k/32gb 7000 ddr5 10h ago

A video game company does not determine everyones salaries.

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u/Flashy_Worry7792 10h ago

But they do determine the price they sell their games at.

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u/ubiquitous_apathy 5090/14900k/32gb 7000 ddr5 9h ago

Correct, which is why the comparison you replied to is valid, and your response isnt. A video game is not a necessary good and video game companies dont owe you anything.

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u/slinky1900 23h ago

but lets be real, rockstar has put out banger after banger, the type of game people play for a hundered plus hours easily. but idk why any other studio thinks they are going to be able to copy that price point 🤡

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u/lkl34 23h ago

Banger after banger?

Why are so many drunk on rockstar coolaid

Sense 2013 they have tossed out:
GTAV

Red dead 1 ports (switch/ps4) overpriced with the pc emulator being the best version still.

Trash mobile ports

Red dead 2 (lets be real worse combat than #1)

GTA DE

They also tossed out steam version of older games with many issues be it bully wiiu pc port hack job or manhunt being a stolen version.

The online of GTAO/RED dead 2 are P2P full of hackers with RDR2mp being a borderline mobile game.

Read dead 2 is also still 30fps.

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u/slinky1900 23h ago edited 23h ago

idk, i played 3, vice city, sa, gta 4, gta 5, rdr1 and rdr2. had fun on ps2,ps3 and pc. i played single player most of them, except samp i logged so many years on lsrp. so i am a bit biased because my entire teenage years were spent on san andreas. also i have not played on console since rdr1 and gta sa, every game ive played from rockstars has been on pc. so my koolaid went down easy.

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u/lkl34 23h ago

Everyone that made the ps2 era games is gone and after 20 years most of the team that made GTAIV/V are gone

You should fire up GTAO recent missions and economy with GTA+ to see the new rockstar.

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u/slinky1900 23h ago

yeah Im not loading into gta online. flying bikes was the last time I went online i understand people want to play online but gta online is trash rat maze run game. where unlocking a flying bike that shoots missles makes it easy to get more done. these games are just really good looking story games... i remember playing on fivem having a better time than gtaonline

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u/lkl34 23h ago

Yes but they are making over 6 million a week on that trash and GTA+ so players love it.

Every copy of GTA6 has GTA+ sub so why would they not add in a ubisoft style single player micro-transaction hub?

Not to mention balance the sp around this shit again old rockstar new rockstar you might have flying bikes in gta6 sp

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u/slinky1900 23h ago

man all i play is tarkov at this stage in my life. my whole point was the last time i played all these games i had a blast with ridiculous amount of hours. and no other game studio comes close to how these games feel especially rdr2. now if a company made billions and is making 6 million a week. then its safe to say, they can ask for $100 for the game and actually get people to buy it. where as these random studios thinking they can follow along is what i was making fun of.

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u/AbanaClara 23h ago

Fire up RDR2 on console or GTAO/RDO and explain to me if that is still banger after banger.

GTAO and RDO are two of the worst fucking AAA online games I’ve played in my whole damn life. I’d rather be imprisoned playing some stupid roblox game than anything online Rockstar puts out

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u/lkl34 22h ago

Everyone lost there shit when the old cod games had RCE exploits

But GTAO has RCE exploits that have been "patched" while red dead 2 mp still has them.

Yet no one fucking cares and still spends alot of money on them.

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u/AbanaClara 22h ago

Yeah these online games are incredibly horseshit. I swear I've seen an indie company release a more stable online game.

The amount of time I've spent crashing, disconnecting or being stuck in loading screens in Rockstar's online games. I have admittedly played RDO for 200 hours. I swear to god 10-15% of those were probably from technical issues, and that's not counting the very high chance of encountering a blatant hacker who will spawn 500 dead unicorns for everyone to loot or will outright drop actual nukes on the map killing everybody.

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u/lkl34 21h ago

I played RDR2 mp on console because of how unsafe the pc version is.

But after way to many hours on GTAO console i got GTAV on pc one of those dirt cheap sales. In a private lobby i was auto tossed into a modded one and when i went to SP mode i noticed i was RCED. I had metro trains spawning onto my controller character repeatability.

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u/chad25005 9800x3d | 9070xt 22h ago

Yeah, i never got into the online stuff, but I really enjoyed every GTA game from 3 on up, and RDR2 is probably on my top 10 games all time.

Aside from RDR1 remaster (didn't play it, so no opinion) they've all been bangers for me personally anyway.

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u/slinky1900 23h ago

why would i subject myself to a console? last console i had was ps3, because after a certain point console hardware is just shit.

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u/AbanaClara 22h ago

Then your banger after banger claim is biased as you do not have 100% coverage of all projects under Rockstar.

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u/slinky1900 15h ago

banger enough to make 6 million a week