“Get a New Hobby”: The GTA 6 $80 Debate Explodes After Colin Moriarty’s Controversial Comment
🚨 “GET A NEW HOBBY.” — ONE GTA 6 COMMENT JUST SET GAMING TWITTER ON FIRE.
Saying GTA 6 is worth $80 is one thing… but telling gamers who can’t afford it to simply leave gaming? 😳
Now the backlash is exploding — and the debate over whether $80 is “too expensive” has turned into something MUCH bigger.
So who was behind the controversial take, and why are thousands of gamers pushing back so hard? 👀
The full drama is here — click below before you miss what everyone’s arguing about. 👇
The GTA 6 price debate has taken a sharp turn from a discussion about the cost of a blockbuster game into a much broader argument over who gets to participate in gaming — after gaming personality Colin Moriarty told people who could not afford the $80 asking price to “get a new hobby.”
The comment quickly became a lightning rod across gaming social media, with critics accusing Moriarty of being dismissive toward players dealing with rising costs, while others argued that Grand Theft Auto VI is an unusually ambitious release and that consumers are free to decide whether it is worth the money.
The controversy comes at a particularly sensitive moment for Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive. GTA 6 is scheduled for release on November 19, 2026, with the Standard Edition priced at $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition at $99.99.
And after years of speculation that GTA 6 might become the first major game to make a $100 standard price normal, the actual pricing announcement has done little to end the argument.
The comment that ignited the backlash
The controversy centers on a post from Moriarty responding to a gamer complaining about the cost of GTA 6.
“If you can’t afford $80 for GTAVI, you should get a new hobby. Delusional,” Moriarty wrote, according to screenshots and social-media reproductions of the exchange. The post subsequently attracted substantial engagement and became a target for criticism from other gaming personalities and players.
The reaction was immediate.
Critics argued that being unable or unwilling to spend $80 on one game does not mean someone cannot afford gaming as a hobby. A player can own hundreds of games, play older releases, wait for sales or simply decide that a particular $80 purchase is not worthwhile.
That distinction became one of the central themes of the backlash.
One Reddit discussion about the remark featured users questioning the idea that a player’s financial situation should determine whether they are considered a “gamer.” Others argued that the issue isn’t necessarily whether GTA 6 is worth $80, but whether consumers should be pressured into accepting higher prices as the new normal.
But GTA 6 isn’t actually a $100 standard game
There is an important distinction in the pricing debate.
Rockstar is not charging $100 for the standard version of GTA 6.
The Standard Edition costs $79.99, while the Ultimate Edition is $99.99 and includes additional content. That $20 gap has become another source of discussion, particularly because some players have questioned whether the premium edition contains content they consider significant enough to justify the additional cost.
The $80 standard price itself is nevertheless a major industry talking point.
For years, $70 became the unofficial benchmark for many major AAA releases. GTA 6 arriving at $79.99 therefore represents another step upward for a blockbuster game.
Fortune reported that the announcement generated frustration not only over the price but also over the physical release format, with physical editions initially not including a traditional game disc.
That means the current argument isn’t simply:
“Can you afford GTA 6?”
It’s increasingly:
“Is $80 the price consumers should accept for AAA games?”
The unusual part: many people are still buying the $100 edition
There is an ironic twist to the controversy.
Despite the outrage surrounding GTA 6’s pricing, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in August that pre-orders were actually skewing toward the $99.99 Ultimate Edition rather than the $79.99 Standard Edition.
According to Zelnick, the most enthusiastic early buyers are disproportionately choosing the more expensive version.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the broader gaming population wants $100 games.
Early adopters of GTA 6 are likely to be among the franchise’s most dedicated fans — precisely the people most willing to spend extra money on the game they’ve been waiting for since GTA 5 launched in 2013.
The distinction matters.
A dedicated GTA fan spending $100 does not automatically prove that $100 is an acceptable standard price for the entire industry.
But it does demonstrate something publishers have been watching closely: there is enormous willingness among hardcore consumers to pay more for major releases they consider exceptional.
Reddit is split
Community reaction has been anything but unanimous.
On Reddit, some GTA 6 fans have defended the $80 price by arguing that the game could provide hundreds or even thousands of hours of entertainment. One highly upvoted discussion following the pricing announcement included users saying the standard price was reasonable and others suggesting that even the $100 Ultimate Edition represented good value compared with other entertainment purchases.
But other players have taken the opposite position.
A separate Reddit discussion criticized Take-Two’s pricing strategy and raised concerns that GTA Online could eventually adopt even more aggressive monetization practices.
That split illustrates why the argument has become so emotionally charged.
People aren’t simply debating one product.
They’re debating what gaming should cost in the future.
The inflation argument doesn’t settle the issue
One defense of the $80 price is that games have not necessarily become more expensive in real terms.
GTA 5 launched at $59.99 in 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that historical price would be substantially higher today. Some analysts and commentators have therefore argued that an $80 GTA 6 could actually represent similar or even better value in inflation-adjusted terms.
Moriarty has reportedly leaned into that argument as well, pointing to the historical pricing of GTA games and arguing that the modern price is not as outrageous as critics suggest.
But critics counter with a different economic reality: consumers don’t pay with “inflation-adjusted dollars.”
They pay with the money in their bank accounts.
A theoretical comparison between the purchasing power of $60 in 2013 and $80 in 2026 doesn’t necessarily make an $80 game feel affordable to someone whose household expenses have increased substantially.
That is why the phrase “just get a new hobby” landed so badly for some players.
For critics, the problem wasn’t merely the price.
It was the attitude toward people questioning the price.
GTA 6 arrives amid an unusually complicated launch
The timing has made the controversy even louder.
Rockstar recently showcased Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, a roughly 26-minute gameplay presentation that highlighted Vice City, protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, character switching, driving, combat, NPC behavior and numerous activities. The presentation generated enormous interest while also sparking debates over Jason’s characterization and aspects of the game’s gameplay.
At the same time, the game has been surrounded by controversy over leaks, digital distribution and the physical edition.
Rockstar described the recent unauthorized leaks as “heartbreaking,” while Take-Two pursued legal steps aimed at identifying those responsible.
The combination has created a strange situation.
GTA 6 may be one of the most anticipated entertainment releases in years, yet virtually every major announcement seems to generate a new argument:
The price.
The Ultimate Edition.
Physical media.
The Netflix presentation.
The leaks.
The gameplay.
And now, whether gamers who object to the cost are somehow “lesser” fans.
Is $80 actually too much?
There is no universal answer.
For someone who expects to spend hundreds of hours in GTA 6, $80 may represent relatively good entertainment value.
For another player, $80 may be too much for a single game — particularly when there are thousands of cheaper games available.
Both positions can exist simultaneously.
A consumer can believe GTA 6 is an extraordinary technical achievement while still refusing to pay $80.
Likewise, someone can criticize Rockstar’s pricing strategy and still pre-order the game.
That is ultimately what makes the “new hobby” argument so controversial: it turns a consumer decision into a judgment about the consumer.
The bigger question for the industry
The real significance of the backlash may extend far beyond Colin Moriarty.
If GTA 6 sells exceptionally well at $79.99 — and if the $99.99 Ultimate Edition continues to attract a large proportion of early buyers — other publishers will inevitably pay attention.
The industry’s pricing strategy has always been influenced by what consumers demonstrate they are willing to purchase.
Insider Gaming polls earlier this year already showed substantial interest in paying more than $70 for GTA 6, although such polls naturally represent gaming-focused audiences rather than the entire market.
That leaves GTA 6 in an unusual position.
It isn’t merely another AAA release.
It could become a real-world experiment in how much consumers are willing to pay for a blockbuster game with extraordinary cultural and commercial expectations behind it.
For now, the safest conclusion is that the $80 price has not united GTA fans — it has exposed a deep divide over value, affordability and the direction of the gaming industry.
And with GTA 6 still months away from its November 19 launch, the argument is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
In fact, if the current reaction is any indication, the price debate may only be getting started.
