GTA 6 Ultimate Edition costs no more than the US standard edition in this country

The much-awaited GTA 6 pre-orders recently went live, reigniting the debate around video game pricing and affordability. Whether we like it or not, GTA 6 and, by extension, Rockstar Games are set to shape the gaming industry for years to come, including influencing what consumers come to accept as the standard price for new games.

For the GTA 6 Standard Edition, players will have to shell out $79.99, while the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition, which includes additional content and missions, is priced at $99.99. In the years leading up to GTA 6's reveal, analysts and journalists frequently predicted that the game would cost around $100. More strikingly, these predictions were often made without any sense of shock or concern, as if a game on the scale of GTA 6 naturally deserved such a price tag.

Whether the pricing is justified or not will likely remain a topic of debate. What's really interesting, however, is that Rockstar Games has taken regional pricing into account. As a result, GTA 6 is cheaper to buy in certain countries than in others. Spoiler alert: players in countries such as the US and the UK, as well as much of Europe, will largely have to pay the full $80 and $100 price tags for the Standard and Ultimate editions, respectively.

However, in countries like India, the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition costs Rs 7,499, which is approximately $79.43. This means that gamers in India can access all the additional content included in GTA 6's Ultimate Edition while paying roughly the same price that US players pay for the Standard Edition.

Meanwhile, the GTA 6 standard edition is priced at Rs 5,999 which equals to $63.54. Imagine telling someone in America that you get to play GTA 6 just for $60. 

I know all of this sounds like a good deal, but things don't look quite as rosy when you consider that India's per capita income is approximately $2,813, roughly ₹235,000-₹245,000, on a nominal basis, and around $10,455 to $12,964 when adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity.

Rockstar's regional pricing acknowledges that a flat $80 price tag would completely price out the Indian market, but even with the price cut, the game remains an incredibly premium luxury item in India compared to the US.