// THE VERGE — HARDWARE & GADGET
With GTA looming, consoles are getting expensive at the worst possible time
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Grand Theft Auto VI is a system seller. But now the systems are a tough sell.
Grand Theft Auto VI is a system seller. But now the systems are a tough sell.
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The release of Grand Theft Auto VI is a singular moment, the kind of massive cultural phenomenon that makes people want to go out and buy a console to play it. It is the preeminent modern example of what’s known as a “system seller.” There’s almost certainly a large audience of people who were waiting to buy a console because all they really play on it is GTA, and they haven’t needed to upgrade since GTA V. But there’s one big problem: At the same time people are getting excited to finally play GTA, the hardware it runs on is becoming prohibitively expensive.
Fans have been waiting for the next Grand Theft Auto for a long time. GTA V originally launched in 2013, and it was subsequently ported to multiple generations of consoles, landed on PC, and, with a little help from its enduring online mode, went on to become perhaps the most lucrative single entertainment product in history. That’s a lot to live up to, and the hype around GTA VI is unlike any game I’ve ever seen. The launch, on November 19th for the PS5 and Xbox Series X / S, is expected to be so big that other game publishers are moving out of the way for fear of getting lost in the shuffle.
When developer Rockstar first confirmed that it was working on the game back in 2022, the two consoles were available at very different prices. The PlayStation 5 launched at $499.99 for the base model, but after a pair of price hikes, it now sits at $649.99. If you want the more powerful PS5 Pro — which might be a good idea for a presumably resource-intensive game like GTA VI — you’re looking at $899.99. Microsoft, meanwhile, has raised the price of its current-gen consoles three times since 2025. A lower-end Xbox Series S now costs $499.99, while the more powerful Series X tops out at $799.99. Both are up hundreds of dollars compared to their launch prices.