Should you spend $70–80 on a new game? The short answer: yes, if you will play it right away and for a long time; no, if you are only curious or still sitting on a pile of unplayed games. The question is back in the spotlight now that GTA 6 is locked at $79.99 for its November 19, 2026 launch, and a mid-September thread on r/AskGames drew a lot of honest answers. OtaHub rounds up what gamers said and checks it against real Steam prices in the US and Vietnam so you can decide for yourself.
Quick answer: when to buy and when to wait
| Worth $70–80 at launch | Better to wait for a sale |
|---|---|
| Multiplayer games, where the player base is biggest in the first months (for example Battlefield 6) | Short single-player games you can finish in 10–15 hours |
| A series you have waited years for and do not want spoiled (GTA 6, Zelda) | Your backlog is already long |
| You know you will play it for 40+ hours | You are only curious and not sure the genre is for you |
| It launches on Game Pass and you already subscribe (it costs you almost nothing extra) | It launched buggy and needs a few patches |
A tip for PC players in Vietnam: always check the Steam Vietnam price before buying keys or topping up a wallet in another region, because the local price is often noticeably lower (details below).
What did gamers on Reddit say?
The r/AskGames thread "Who is actually paying $70–80 for new games nowadays?" reads like a complaint, but the most upvoted answer, at around 137, was blunt: "Anyone who wants to play new games." One reply said they had not bought a game in a while because of their backlog, but they would definitely buy the Ocarina of Time remake on Switch 2, which was just announced in the September 2026 Nintendo Direct.
The same thread quickly split. "I want to play new games, but I’m happy to wait for a sale," one person wrote. Another was even shorter: "The $20 games I buy are new to me. Don’t really see the difference personally other than marketing and hype." Read the whole thread and you see three kinds of players: buy now for the passion, buy selectively, and never pay full price. The fairest answer may be the shortest reply: "Depends on the game."
Counted by the hour, gaming is still a cheap hobby
The second most upvoted comment (around 132) came at it from another angle: "I buy games to keep me inside and not spend money. Gaming is a pretty cheap hobby if you do it right." A reply added that it is the cheapest hobby, unless you are pouring tens of thousands into gambling-style games.
The most common argument was cost per hour. One user worked out that a game taking about 20 hours to finish costs only $3 an hour at $60. Another went further: 70 hours of play brings it down to about $1 an hour. Several compared it with a night out:
It’s easy to blow $70 on a night out with dinner and drinks. That’s fun, but is over after a few hours. A game with good replay value can be hundreds or even thousands of hours of entertainment.An r/AskGames user
Applied to GTA 6’s $79.99 price, and converted at Vietcombank’s selling rate on October 2, 2026 (26,190 VND per dollar):
| Hours played | Cost per hour (USD) | Cost per hour (VND) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 hours | $8.00 | about 209,000 VND |
| 20 hours | $4.00 | about 105,000 VND |
| 40 hours | $2.00 | about 52,000 VND |
| 100 hours | $0.80 | about 21,000 VND |
In other words, if you play a game for more than 40 hours, each hour costs about as much as a coffee. It is the game you play for a few evenings and drop that makes $70–80 genuinely expensive. The debate even spilled over into books: one reader said they spend up to $600 a year on one or two books a month, while they had spent only about $200 on games this year. The other side answered in four words: "Libraries are a thing." Any hobby can be cheap or expensive, depending on how you do it.
Are $70–80 games really pricier than they used to be?
Not as much as people think. One branch of the thread pointed out that Super Mario Bros. 3 was $49 at release, roughly $125 in today’s money. Others remembered Final Fantasy VI at $60–70 in 1994 and Chrono Trigger at $70 or $80; one person said they paid $79.99 for it at Target. Someone recalled Street Fighter II at about $75, which would be over $170 today with inflation.
Those are players’ memories, not official price lists, but they match the data. According to the US consumer price index, $60 in 2006, when $59.99 was already the standard price for Xbox 360 and PS3 games, is worth about $99.70 in 2026. In real terms, a $70 AAA game today is still cheaper than a $60 game from 20 years ago.
That argument does not convince everyone. As one person put it, in 2002 convincing their mom to buy a new PS2 game was "like convincing her to buy a new washer and dryer." Inflation makes games cheaper on paper, but incomes do not rise at the same pace for everyone, or in every country.
How did AAA prices climb from $60 to $80?
- July 2020: NBA 2K21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X became the first game to announce a $69.99 price, $10 above the familiar $59.99. That price quickly became the standard for the new console generation.
- June 2025: Mario Kart World launched alongside Nintendo Switch 2 at $79.99, the first $80 game on Nintendo’s new console.
- July 2025: Microsoft planned to sell The Outer Worlds 2 at $79.99, but after player backlash it went back to $69.99 on July 23, 2025 and refunded the difference to pre-order customers.
- September and October 2025: Borderlands 4 (September 12) and Battlefield 6 (October 10) both launched at $69.99.
- June 2026: Rockstar opened GTA 6 pre-orders on June 25, 2026: $79.99 for the Standard Edition and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition, launching November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. See OtaHub’s GTA 6 countdown for more.
After Microsoft’s retreat, $79.99 has not become the norm. Only the biggest names, such as Mario Kart and GTA, can charge it, because players are still willing to pay.
How much do you save by waiting?
Quite a lot. OtaHub checked Steam prices on October 2, 2026 for several games that launched at $69.99:
| Game | Launch | Launch price | Steam US (Oct 2, 2026) | Steam Vietnam (Oct 2, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battlefield 6 | Oct 10, 2025 | $69.99 | $34.99 (50% off) | 649,500 VND (base 1,299,000 VND) |
| Borderlands 4 | Sep 12, 2025 | $69.99 | $34.99 (50% off) | 605,000 VND (base 1,210,000 VND) |
| Monster Hunter Wilds | Feb 28, 2025 | $69.99 | $29.99 (list price now $39.99) | 637,500 VND (base 850,000 VND) |
| DOOM: The Dark Ages | May 15, 2025 | $69.99 | $24.99 (list price now $49.99) | 499,500 VND (base 999,000 VND) |
These discounts were live when OtaHub checked and can end at any time. Still, the trend is clear: within 12 to 18 months, many AAA games are half price or less. One Reddit user described exactly this approach: they buy only one or two expensive new games a year, spent about $50 on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Star Wars Zero Company this year, plus another $50–60 on sale games. About $120 in total, for more than a dozen games played.
What does a "$70" game actually cost in Vietnam?
Usually less than $70. Steam uses regional pricing, so base prices in VND are lower than a straight conversion. At Vietcombank’s selling rate on October 2, 2026, $69.99 is about 1.83 million VND and $79.99 about 2.09 million VND.
- Battlefield 6: base price 1,299,000 VND on Steam Vietnam, about 29% below the converted price.
- Borderlands 4: base price 1,210,000 VND, about 34% lower.
- EA SPORTS FC 26: $69.99 in the US but only 490,000 VND on Steam Vietnam.
GTA 6 is the exception: it launches only on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and as of October 2, 2026 there is no official VND price. Converted directly, console players should budget about 2.1 million VND for the Standard Edition. Hardware is getting pricier too: Nintendo Switch 2 rose to $499.99 in the US on September 1, 2026.
Is Game Pass cheaper than buying games?
It depends on how many games you play. On October 1, 2025, Microsoft raised Xbox Game Pass Ultimate by 50% to $29.99 a month, promising more than 75 day-one releases a year. Twelve months costs about $360, the price of four to five $79.99 games. It pays off if you play a lot of Xbox games at launch. If you only wait for one or two big releases a year, buying on sale is still cheaper.
FAQ: should you buy $70–80 games?
Should you buy GTA 6 at launch?
If you already own a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S and know you will put in a lot of hours, buying at launch makes sense, because GTA games keep players busy for a long time. If you do not have the console yet or are just curious, waiting for reviews and the first sales is safer. The Standard Edition costs $79.99.
How much does GTA 6 cost?
Rockstar priced the GTA 6 Standard Edition at $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition at $99.99. The game launches November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S; there is no PC release date yet.
How long until AAA games go on sale?
There is no fixed timeline. On Steam on October 2, 2026, Battlefield 6 (launched October 10, 2025) and Borderlands 4 (September 12, 2025) were both 50% off at $34.99, while Monster Hunter Wilds and DOOM: The Dark Ages had permanently lower list prices than at launch.
Are games cheaper on Steam Vietnam than at US prices?
Usually, because Steam uses regional pricing. Battlefield 6 has a base price of 1,299,000 VND in Vietnam, while $69.99 converts to about 1.83 million VND at Vietcombank’s selling rate on October 2, 2026.
What was the first $70 game?
NBA 2K21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X, priced at $69.99 in July 2020. $69.99 then became the common price for new-generation AAA games.
OtaHub’s take
$70–80 games are not the rip-off many online complaints suggest, but they are not always worth buying on day one either. If you will play a game for dozens of hours, or it is a series you have waited years for like GTA, Mario Kart or Zelda, full price is reasonable. For most other games, waiting 6–12 months often saves 30–50%. PC players in Vietnam get an extra edge from Steam’s regional pricing. The hardest call is console exclusives like GTA 6, where about 2 million VND for one game will be a real decision this November.
Sources: OtaHub roundup of the r/AskGames thread "Who is actually paying $70–80 for new games nowadays?" (September 2026), Steam prices in the US and Vietnam (October 2, 2026), Rockstar Games via Variety, Game Informer, Nintendo, Shacknews, CNBC, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI and Vietcombank exchange rates on October 2, 2026. Images are copyright of their publishers and used for informational purposes.