Martin Klíma, executive producer at Warhorse Studios and co-founder behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, has come out with a blunt take on the game pricing debate: only Rockstar Games has the cultural weight to push the industry toward higher price points, and he's hoping GTA 6 uses it.
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The only studio that can dare to charge more
Klíma's position is straightforward. Rockstar is, in his words, the only developer "who can afford, or who can dare, to increase the price of games" and he believes that increase is "long overdue and also necessary for this business to survive."
Here's the thing: GTA 6 launched at $80, matching the price Nintendo set with Mario Kart World on Switch 2. That's above the long-standing $70 standard, but it's not the $100 ceiling some analysts were predicting. Still, Klíma hopes the move signals something bigger. He wants GTA 6 to "blaze the trail" so that studios like Warhorse can follow without being the first to take the hit from player backlash.
The logic holds up when you look at the numbers. Rockstar and Nintendo are arguably the only publishers whose fanbases will absorb a price hike without a significant drop in day-one sales. Most studios don't have that safety net.
Klíma doesn't even play GTA, and he's fine with that
What makes this take more interesting is the honesty behind it. Klíma freely admits the GTA series "doesn't appeal to me at all" and that the reason for its popularity "beats me." He says he won't be playing GTA 6 "unless somehow forced to."
But he's not dismissive. He calls Rockstar's work "technological marvels" and acknowledges that GTA serving an audience he doesn't personally connect with is exactly what makes it valuable to the wider industry. A rising tide, as the saying goes.
This isn't the first time someone from the KCD2 camp has weighed in on GTA 6. The game's director previously described the protagonists as "two uninteresting sociopaths," so the Warhorse team clearly has opinions. Klíma's take is more measured: he doesn't need to love the game to recognize what it can do for pricing norms.
Where the broader pricing debate stands
Klíma isn't alone in pushing this argument. Joe Brammer, lead on the upcoming FPS Wardogs, has also argued that games are too cheap and that GTA 6 should have been the title to make the shift permanent.
The counterargument is harder to dismiss, though. Game budgets have ballooned, but so have executive compensation packages. Passing costs to players while studios simultaneously hand out eight-figure CEO bonuses after layoffs is a tough sell. Klíma's argument is about sustainability, but sustainability looks different depending on where you sit in the org chart.
What this means for mid-tier studios like Warhorse
For a studio like Warhorse, the pricing ceiling matters more than it does for Rockstar or Nintendo. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is an RPG with a dedicated but niche audience. Charging $80 without a precedent-setter absorbing the first wave of player resistance is a real commercial risk.
The key here is that Klíma isn't asking Rockstar to do anything altruistic. He's pointing out that market leaders set price norms whether they intend to or not. If GTA 6 holds at $80 and sells tens of millions of copies, the argument for $70 as the standard weakens considerably.
Whether the rest of the industry follows, and whether players accept it, is a different question entirely. For now, Warhorse is watching. If you're deep in the game and want to get the most out of your playthrough, the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II strategy guides cover everything from early survival to late-game builds worth knowing before you sink another 40 hours in.
