I went to FNAC to buy GTA 6 Today

I’ve lived in Portugal for almost ten years now, and for the most part, the country only makes world headlines because of soccer, summer fires, or the ridiculous housing costs in Lisbon. While drinking my morning coffee (Delta Lote Chávena, there is a simple beauty), however, I saw Portugal in the middle of the most pressing question in the sports industry: how much will GTA 6 cost?

An eagle-eyed observer at Resetera spotted inventory codes (SKU) going up on the Portuguese FNAC site for a mysterious game, codename RS, which launched on November 19, 2026. Most importantly, for many, this was the first tangible indication of how much GTA 6 will cost.

According to the list, the base game (‘RS1’) will cost €89.99. Some special plans will set you back from €119.99 to €199.99. Traditionally, prices in the Eurozone take numbers in USD and add another ten for good measure. In other words, this would mean a $79.99 base game. If true, GTA 6 will raise AAA prices, potentially opening the door for other publishers to follow suit.

As soon as I confirmed the listing as genuine, I was on my way to the nearest FNAC store, just 15 minutes away. Although I usually buy electronics from Worthen, FNAC is the only gaming store in my family. Game pre-orders, consoles, and even my work laptop came from there. That was old ‘boring’ marketing, however, the kind where the product had to be found.

Race Between The Leakers, FNAC, and Rockstar

On a normal day, most publishers and their PR teams don’t take leaks lightly. Marketing campaigns depend on carefully managing vibes and getting things right, and leaks can make things go wrong. When you consider how the road to the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 ruined the Christmas release calendar, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Rockstar may not have been happy about this.

Although it is Sunday, it seems that the red call was working well, because by the time I got to FNAC, the listing was no longer available. Just to make sure, I went to the pre-order wall and checked the system one last time, but nothing: I wasn’t going to buy GTA 6 today after all.

My luck, of course, is small. I knew this would be the result, and even if I somehow managed to place my pre-order, I wouldn’t be able to play it until November unless someone got even more ridiculously stupid.

The biggest problem is the blind faith that is placed on the FNAC index with the correct value. Now, don’t get me wrong; I like FNAC Portugal, though the French-owned store has a habit of opening pre-orders for games earlier than the official source, using its best guess at the price. To promote this, FNAC likes to throw in a 15% discount.

Since most of these pre-orders are launched before the game has an official price tag, in-store pre-orders allow you to pay half now, and the other half when you pick up the game on launch day. If at the time the game is launched, it is cheaper than the FNAC rating, you simply have less money to pay. If it costs more, you can pay the difference or get your deposit back, no questions asked.

These FNAC pre-orders are usually opened early in the year the game is expected to launch, leading to painful moments in gameplay, like Cyberpunk 2077 or STALKER 2 ending up in pre-order purgatory following successive delays. It seems that Rockstar or FNAC, on their own initiative, decided to stick with the global release plan of GTA 6.

If the worst happens and GTA 6 launches for $79.99 for the base game, we could be heading into a dark age for gaming prices. As things stand, games are the only thing that remains largely unknown, while hardware costs go through the roof.

Until then, I’ll quietly pretend everything is fine until Thursday. Maybe this time next year, I’ll have saved up enough money to buy the $79.99 game.

Systems

Released

November 19, 2026

The ESRB

Rating Pending – Mature 17+