The cost of console gaming has become significantly more expensive in recent months. Sony hiked the price of PS5 hardware in April, which means a new PS5 now starts at $600, and a PS5 Pro now costs $900. More recently, Sony raised the price of PlayStation Plus, which is required for online gaming. Microsoft, too, has increased the price of the Xbox Series X and S, although it has cut the price of Xbox Game Pass.

GTA 6 is probably the most anticipated video game of all time, and it is expected to break sales records. But it is also coming out on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S only — there is no PC version at launch. This means that you need a modern console to play it, and there will be many who will be looking to buy one for the first time just to play GTA 6 this November.

But could the high cost of a PlayStation or Xbox in 2026 put potential new console gamers off? Could the rising cost of entry limit the potential success of even GTA 6? I put that to Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar parent company Take-Two, ahead of the company’s latest financial results. He dismissed the idea, pointing to a ‘if you build it, they will come’ attitude among consumers, even during economically tough times. But, within that bullishness, Zelnick did express an awareness that consumers are feeling the money pressure.

“In real dollars, the cost of frontline video games has declined materially in the last 30 years,” Zelnick said. “Frontline prices have not gone up very much even in the context of inflation. But from our point of view around here, what we can do to make a difference is always deliver an experience that is so much better than what people pay for, that they're thrilled to buy our titles. Our job is to make the best entertainment on earth and that's true across the board.

“If you give people what they want in the entertainment business, they will come out for it. But I am sensitive to the fact that so many people are facing economic challenges.”

When publicly traded companies make their financial projections, they list assumptions that factor into their calculations. This current financial year is expected to break all sorts of revenue records for Take-Two, which you’d expect given the release of GTA 6. But within that is an assumption that the console install base continues to grow. That is, people continue to buy the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.

Is that a given though? During the last financial quarter, Sony sold just 1.5 million PS5 consoles, down 46% year-over-year. Microsoft doesn’t report console sales, but did say recently that Xbox hardware revenues had plummeted 33% year-over-year. And what about the install base GTA 6 is launching into? PS5 has sold more than 93 million units, as of the end of March 2026. Again, Microsoft does not report Xbox Series X and S sales, but we know the consoles lag far behind the PS5. Zelnick has said in interviews that the console install base is not quite at 150 million yet, and we're nearly six years into the generation.

So, with GTA 6 launching in just six months, how does Zelnick feel about the console install base as it stands, and Take-Two's assumption that it will grow.

“We feel fine about the install base now,” Zelnick said. “Obviously we believe that there'll be growth in the install base between now and the launch of GTA 6, partially related to the holiday season and normal growth, and console sales occurs around that time of year. And also we do think that GTA 6 will drive some growth.”

The release date of GTA 6 here is very important: November 19, 2026. That’s just a week before this year’s Black Friday sales event, which falls on November 27. Will the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S get any decent discounts for this sales period? Will Sony and Microsoft have enough console stock to capitalize on heightened interest, given the rising cost of manufacturing and distribution, and memory shortages caused by the AI boom?

There are a lot of factors in play, but you can’t help but feel the release of GTA 6 is one of the biggest moments for this console generation, perhaps even its most important moment. And we haven’t even spoken about the price of GTA 6 itself. Zelnick talks about offering value for money, and often points out, as he did to me this week, that the cost of console gaming hasn’t risen all that much when you take into account inflation. Does this indicate GTA 6 will cost north of $70? Some analysts think it will cost $80, others even higher.

We’ve got plenty more from our Strauss Zelnick interview, including confirmation of the GTA 6 release date, putting to bed delay fears, as well as his thoughts on GTA 6 marketing, which is expected to kick off alongside pre-orders this summer.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Although Final Fantasy 11 turns 24 this year, the MMORPG enjoyed a big boost in concurrent player count thanks to the successful Final Fantasy 14 crossover event. In light of this unexpected rise in popularity, FF11’s current director Yoji Fujito talked about what’s next for the online game, suggesting that a brand new area and story could be in the pipeline.

In a recent Famitsu interview, Fujito hinted that the team might be able to add new areas and storylines to FF11. However, he explained that technical issues and a shortage of staff means that they can’t just simply add a new area onto the 24 year old online game ASAP.

Although FF11 has been moving its aging physical servers to virtual servers, this initiative is to ensure the game remains playable in its current state, and no changes were made with a view to supporting a large-scale expansion. “Even if we decide to add a new area, we cannot do this using conventional methods at present because we have run out of IDs for management. However, we know that we can free up a few ID slots, so we are currently investigating how we can make use of this,” Fujito explained, adding that these efforts may make it possible to add a new area to the game. “Depending on the results, I feel that some sort of project might get underway.”

Fujito emphasized that the team is currently laying the groundwork for potential new FF11 story content. FF11 hasn't had a new episodic story since The Voracious Resurgence, and part of the reason for this is that storywriting staff are currently tied up with other projects at Square Enix. But, once they have finished, “we are planning to have them return to the FF11 team to see if they can produce something new,” Fujito said. At the same time, engineers are working on graphics resource management middleware. “Once we resolve this, it will be possible to make new cutscenes again,” Fujito added.

Last year, Final Fantasy 14 kicked off the Echoes of Vana’diel crossover event with FF11, which brought renewed attention to the FF series’ first MMORPG outing. Old adventurers and new players alike were drawn to FF11 thanks to EoV, a welcome back initiative, the revamped Limbus and the Mog Bonanza weapons giveaway, pushing up the player count. Much to the developers’ surprise, rather than taking a temporary vacation to Vana’diel, players seem to be sticking with veteran MMO.

This unforeseen rise in concurrent players forced Square Enix to close some servers to newcomers to prevent overpopulation. “We predicted that many people would try out FF11 and soon stop playing, so we expected the player surge to go back down, however many players have chosen to stay in Vana’diel,” said Fujito. “Overall, the high player count has been stable with no sudden drop.”

Echoes of Vana’diel also attracted streamers to FF11, with Fujito noting: “I feel that we reached an audience we hadn’t reached before.” The EoV crossover triggered a virtuous cycle of FF14 players becoming interested in FF11 and checking out streams. “They then think, ‘I want to give it a go myself,’ and start playing (FF11) and sharing info about it.”

Over the past year, the Final Fantasy 11 development team has gradually revamped the game’s Limbus content for high level players so the difficulty and rewards better match today’s playerbase. Fujito noted that their goal is to “prioritize ease of play for solo players and small groups.” To this end, the team has also been enhancing the Faces system, which allows solo players to create a virtual party for team quests, bringing virtual character levels in-line with the player’s.

Fujito revealed that Limbus’s revamp is slated to wrap up this June, when they will add the final boss and two new accompanying battle themes by veteran FF11 composer Naoshi Mizuta.

He also acknowledged the sharp differences in difficulty level between FF11’s worlds. “We realize that this is an issue,” Fujito said, adding that the team plans to look into adjusting Grace buffs after the Limbus revamp is completed. “If we were to adjust it, we would make uniform adjustments to Grace buff speeds across all worlds instead of dealing with each world individually.”

FF11 was initially released on PC and PS2 way back in 2002. Nowadays, with automatic updates, online stores and achievements, connecting your PC or current-gen game console to the internet is a no-brainer, so it’s easy to forget that FF11 comes from a generation in which hooking up your console to the internet was still a novelty. It required attaching a chunky proprietary Sony HDD to the back of the original fat model PS2, plugging in the ethernet cable and praying your internet was stable enough for you to enjoy the game.

Although PS2 connections to FF11 servers ended support in 2016, FF11 is still alive on PC. What’s more it seems to be thriving beyond Square Enix’s expectations, 24 years and three console generations on.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Riot Games has stepped in to squash rumors that it is using its Vanguard anti-cheat to "brick" the PCs of players who get caught cheating in its games.

Rumors that the League of Legends and Valorant developer was bringing a permanent end to cheaters spread late yesterday following an X/Twitter post from the company. In response to a separate post about its anti-cheat efforts, Riot posted an image showing a collection of hardware with the message "congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight."

It was a tongue-in-cheek crack at cheaters that rapidly evolved into rumors that the company had the power to render PCs useless. It took Riot less than a day to clear the air, confirming both that it "would not, and cannot, impact your PC's functionality" and that the paperweights it referred to were hardware used "explicitly for cheating." To put it plainly, Riot said, "Vanguard does not damage hardware or disable your devices."

congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight https://t.co/3rjZVQntrc pic.twitter.com/fS3JC0FL0p

"The photo we posted is a picture of cheat hardware devices that are sold explicitly for cheating in VALORANT (not normal PCs or PC components)," Riot said. "Through our latest updates, Vanguard now makes those devices worthless for VAL, but does not in any way brick PCs or PC components or PC software.

"Our latest update enforces standard platform security features, like the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), on accounts identified as using Direct Memory Access (DMA) cheating devices. These protections are already part of modern systems and when enabled, they block DMA cheat devices (such as those shown in the photo) from accessing memory in downstream applications, like our games."

Riot continued, explaining that cheaters may run into hardware faults or instability if they continued cheat attempts. It added that "this is expected behavior," but if IOMMU is disabled, the cheating device should function as normal. Additionally, only those who use DMA-based cheats will be affected by the aforementioned issues.

"This means the cheat device won’t work with our games, but your PC isn’t 'bricked.' We would not, and cannot, impact your PC’s functionality in any other fashion," it continued.

"We’ll keep investing in anti-cheat to protect competitive integrity, and we’ll keep being as transparent as possible about how those systems work."

The League of Legends company further attempted to dodge controversy with a follow-up post. In it, Riot said that it "didn't" joke about bricking PCs, only about Valorant cheating devices. It even instructed cheaters on how to fix any paperweight-ing that may have occurred but says that, as long as they are using DMA cheats, they "won't be able to play our games."

Riot's latest attempt to quell fan outcry follows a similar conversation that sprouted up around Vanguard in 2024. At the time, players claimed that the developer was using anti-cheat to brick PCs before the company stepped in to say that it was unable to confirm any reports of bricking taking place.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).