How much you'll actually spend on GTA 6 (and how to budget for it)

79.99 € or 89.99 €, no surprises or rumours involved: it's one of the few big launches to arrive with a confirmed price almost three months in advance. That's a real advantage for planning ahead calmly, so it's worth using it instead of leaving it to the last minute.

GTA V has spent more than a decade generating revenue through its online mode, largely thanks to Shark Cards: real money exchanged for in-game money to speed things up. It's a well-documented and extremely profitable business model for Rockstar, and everything points to GTA 6 following the same path. This isn't a knock on the game, it's a heads-up: the real spend usually isn't in the 79.99 € box, it's in what gets added afterwards, in individual purchases that look small on their own.

The difference between "I'll be careful with in-game purchases" and having a written limit in euros is the difference between ending up spending 80 € or ending up spending 300 € without noticing. Before pre-ordering, decide on a specific figure for the game and everything you buy inside it in the first month, and treat it as a limit, not an intention. If you can see that number somewhere, it's a lot easier to stick to than if it only lives in your head.

From now until November 19 is just over two months. You don't need a complicated plan: that's 27 € a month for three months, or the full 80 € at once if you'd rather pre-order now and secure the early download on the 12th. What matters isn't how long it takes you to put it together, it's that it's spending you decide on ahead of time rather than something that comes out of wherever you can find it in the moment.

In Neto you can create a budget category for "Entertainment" or "Games" with the cap you've decided on, and log both the game purchase and any in-game spending against it. That way, when you check your spending in December, you'll know exactly whether the game cost you 80 € or a fair bit more, instead of finding out by surprise when you check your account balance.

The launch price is one of the few you already know ahead of time: 79.99 € or 89.99 €. The real risk is the online mode, which in the previous entry was by far the game's biggest source of revenue. Decide on a cap before you pre-order, not after the first in-game purchase, and save the 80 € over the coming weeks so you don't have to pull it from somewhere it wasn't meant to come from.