Please Rockstar and Take-Two, push GTA 6's price up to $80 for the good of "the entire industry", Bank of America beg

Meanwhile, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick says the lack of a PC port at launch is about prioritising "serving the core consumer"

Come on, you know you want to. This is what those who're keen to play GTA 6 on PC around the same time it releases on console have been saying to Rockstar and Take-Two for years. It's also now what the Bank of America are saying to the publisher's boss Strauss Zelnick, as they try to convince him that putting the game's price up to $80 would be good not only for the GTA makers, but the industry as a whole. As of right now, Zelnick seems totally unfussed by the former and might be considering the latter.

First, the matter of GTA 6's PC release. Zelnick's told Bloomberg that not putting the crime sandbox on it at the same time the game releases on consoles is just a matter of "serving the core consumer". "If your core consumer isn't there, if they're not served first and best, you kind of don't hit your other consumers," he added, making clear this is why GTA games go to console first.

As annoying as it might be, it's a stance allegedly leaked GTA Online sales figures seem to back up. Though, it's rather undermined in the Bloomberg piece by Zelnick admitting just prior that currently "with regard to a big title, PC can be 45, 50% of the sales", percentages far higher than they were in the past. Strauss, you can probably just admit you'd rather like it if people bought the game twice - initially on console and then on PC. You'd probably not get in too much trouble.

Zelnick's also been busy talking to some bankers recently, by the sounds of it. The Bank of America, to be specific, who've published a note on GTA6's price following the Iicon conference in Las Vegas. The bankers say they're now of the "view" that GTA 6's price'll be $80, rather than $70.

"Although executives with Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) did not specifically endorse an $80 price tag, it was noted by them that on an inflation-adjusted basis, the price of video games has fallen over time and that the company would price GTA 6 commensurately with the value it delivers to consumers," the bankers wrote. Securities stock analyst Omar Dessouky added the following: "We also heard from attendees that the industry, which is perceived as struggling, would have difficulty selling games for $80 if GTA 6 came out at $70. We think it’s in Take-Two's self-interest, as a publisher and partner to many developers, to raise the price point for the entire industry."

"Consumers pay for the value that you bring to them, and our job is to charge way way way less of the value delivery,” Zelnick himself said of GTA 6's price at Iicon. "How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were charged was fair for what they got."

So, no concrete indication either way, but one would think having a bunch of bankers publicly pushing for such a thing to happen might nudge Take-Two in that direction. Either way, the slight silver lining is that it's not something PC-only players will have to worry about this year.