2026 Console Price Increases

Xbox and PlayStation price rises put GTA 6's total cost of entry between $579.98 and $999.98, a $420 spread, as of August 2026.

Xbox rise
+$100 / +$150, effective August 1, 2026 (third increase)
PS5 rise
Effective April 2, 2026
Cheapest route
$579.98 (Series S 512GB + Standard)
Dearest route
$999.98 (PS5 Pro + Ultimate)
Spread
$420.00
GTA 6 link
None drawn by Microsoft

Console price rises on both platforms reshaped the cost of playing Grand Theft Auto VI at launch. As of August 2026 the cheapest legitimate route into the game is $579.98 and the dearest is $999.98, two cents under a thousand dollars, a spread of exactly $420.00.

The Xbox increase

Xbox Wire announced on June 25, 2026 that "The price of XBOX consoles will increase by US$100 for 512 GB models and US$150 for 1 TB models", effective August 1, 2026 worldwide, with the 2TB model being sunset. Microsoft's stated justification cites the components crisis: "console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027". The post's own reference to a prior October rise of "$20-$70" makes August 1 the third increase in the sequence, not the second, as some outlets wrote. Post-increase MSRPs from Microsoft's store: Series S 512GB $499.99, Series S 1TB $599.99, Series X Digital $749.99, Series X disc $799.99. Microsoft draws no link to GTA 6; the timing adjacency is observation.

The PlayStation increase

Sony moved first: a March 27, 2026 PlayStation Blog post by Isabelle Tomatis raised prices effective April 2, 2026, putting the US PS5 at $649.99, PS5 Digital at $599.99 and PS5 Pro at $899.99, with corresponding rises in the UK, Europe and Japan.

The arithmetic

With the game confirmed at $79.99 and $99.99: Series S plus Standard is $579.98; Series X disc plus Ultimate is $899.98; PS5 Digital plus Standard is $679.98; PS5 Pro plus Ultimate is $999.98. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella told The Game Business in May 2026: "A $1,000 console! There's going to be a price shock for a lot of people", adding that consoles are increasingly "targeted to high income households". See price history, PS5 version and Xbox version.

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