Many have paid the extra $20, but there’s no rush to join them.
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We don’t need to tell you that Grand Theft Auto VI is set to be the biggest game launch of all time at this point. The product of more than a decade of development, almost 5 million people had pre-ordered the digital download within days of the Netflix Extended Look (which itself pulled in 31.1 million Netflix views) according to Sensor Tower data. With figures like that, the question for most isn’t whether to buy it, but which version.
The answer, resoundingly, seems to be the $99.99 Ultimate Edition. Priced at $20 above the Standard Edition’s $79.99, the Ultimate Edition has reportedly attracted almost 90 percent of pre-release sales. But unless a handful of cosmetics and a bonus side mission truly speak to you, we recommend keeping your $20 for now. You can always upgrade to the Ultimate Edition at any time after launch.
What’s in the Ultimate Edition’s box
Not a disc, unfortunately.
The two most notable Ultimate Edition extras are the exclusive locations and side missions. They include five shops: Rideout Customs, Sara’s Unisex Salon, the Stock 305 clothing store, One-Eyed Willie’s off-road mod shop and the Electric Fang Tattoo Parlor, which stocks over 50 designs from the art collective FAILE. In terms of extra side missions, there’s the PTT Youngin$ Compound, which is a gang stronghold you raid for contraband, and the Classic Car Collection, a string of restoration jobs dished out by a fixer named Wyman.
The remainder of the pre-order additions are things to own and wear. There are three exclusive vehicles including the GTA series icon Cheetah, reimagined as the ’95 Grotti Cheetah, a Shitzu Squalo jet ski that comes loaded with explosives and the ’67 Vapid Dominator Buggy. Ultimate Edition fans also get the Hawk & Little Morgan Revolvers, a set of weapon skins and the Vice City Styles and Goodtime Gear outfit packs.
Keep in mind that the more you play GTA, the more you unlock, earn, buy, or steal anyway, so a fancier garage on day one isn’t going to move the needle much. They aren’t really even day-one inclusions; Rockstar has said the bonuses are “threaded” throughout the game and “uncovered behind each chapter” as the story goes on.
Is the extra $20 for the Ultimate Edition worth it?
Nearly everyone pre-ordering GTA 6 so far has decided that it is. Sensor Tower reckons that 88.5 percent of pre-orders on PlayStation and 90 percent on Xbox are for the Ultimate Edition.
That’s pretty staggering given that a typical premium edition might manage a more modest 10 to 20 percent, according to Karl Kontus, Sensor Tower’s SVP and GM of Video Game Insights. “I have never seen a 90 percent premium share before,” he said, adding that he expects the split to land “much closer to 50/50” once more casual buyers turn up closer to the game’s November launch. Take-Two hasn’t published any figures of its own and CEO Strauss Zelnick declined to give numbers when he spoke to CNBC following the company’s August 7 earnings call, but did admit pre-orders are “skewing more to the premium edition.”
As for whether the extra $20 is worth it, that comes down to how much value you place on being able to access the additional shops and side missions. If you’re not sure, just buy the Standard edition and find out. There’s no real benefit in rushing to pre-order the Ultimate Edition given that you can pay the extra $20 to upgrade after release.
That itself is another departure from the norm when, historically, the whole point of a premium edition pre-order has been early access. Starfield’s Premium Edition granted players up to five days’ early access, and Diablo IV’s Digital Deluxe and Ultimate Editions four days. With GTA 6, though, everyone’s presumably getting access at the same time, though Rockstar has yet to release specific timings for the unlock and how different timezones will be factored in.
