Many paid $20 more, but there is no rush to join them.
We don’t need to tell you Grand Theft Auto VI should be the biggest game launch of all time at this point. A product of more than a decade in development, nearly 5 million people had pre-ordered the digital download within days of the Netflix Extended Look (which itself generated 31.1 million Netflix views) according to Sensor Tower data. With numbers like that, the question for most isn’t whether to buy it, but which version.
The answer appears to be the $99.99 Ultimate Edition. Priced $20 more than the standard edition’s $79.99, the Ultimate Edition reportedly attracted nearly 90 percent of pre-release sales. But unless a handful of cosmetics and a bonus side mission really speak to you, we recommend saving your $20 for now. You can always upgrade to the Ultimate Edition at any time after launch.
What’s in the Ultimate Edition box?
Not a record, unfortunately.
The two most notable extras of the Ultimate Edition are the exclusive locations and side missions. They include five stores: Rideout Customs, Sara’s Unisex Salon, clothing store Stock 305, off-road mod shop One-Eyed Willie and the Electric Fang Tattoo Parlor, which features more than 50 creations by art collective FAILE. In terms of additional side missions, there’s the PTT Youngin$ Compound, which is a gang stronghold that you raid for contraband, and the Classic Car Collection, a series of restoration jobs carried out by a repairman named Wyman.
The rest 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 Grotti Cheetah ’95, an explosive-laden Shitzu Squalo jet ski, and the Vapid Dominator ’67 Buggy. Ultimate Edition fans will also receive 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 GTA you play, the more you unlock, earn, buy or steal anyway, so a fancier garage on day one won’t shake things up much. These aren’t even really day one inclusions; Rockstar said the power-ups were “replicated” throughout the game and “discovered behind each chapter” as the story progresses.
Is the extra $20 for the Ultimate Edition worth it?
Almost everyone who has pre-ordered GTA 6 so far has decided that it is. Sensor Tower estimates that 88.5% of pre-orders on PlayStation and 90% on Xbox are for the Ultimate Edition.
That’s pretty staggering considering a typical premium edition might manage a more modest 10 to 20 percent, according to Karl Kontus, senior vice president of Sensor Tower and general manager of Video Game Insights. “I’ve never seen a 90% premium share before,” he said, adding that he expects the split to get “much closer to 50/50” once new casual buyers show up closer to the game’s November launch. Take-Two has not released any figures, and CEO Strauss Zelnick declined to give figures when speaking to CNBC following the company’s Aug. 7 earnings call, but admitted that pre-orders are “leaning more toward the premium edition.”
As for whether the extra $20 is worth it, that depends on how much you value the ability to access the extra shops and side missions. If you’re not sure, just buy the Standard Edition and find out. There’s no real benefit to rushing out to pre-order the Ultimate Edition given that you can pay an extra $20 to upgrade after release.
This in itself is another departure from the norm when, historically, the whole point of a premium edition pre-order was early access. Starfield The Premium Edition granted players up to five days of early access, and Diablo IV Digital Deluxe and Ultimate Editions four days. With GTA 6, however, everyone will likely have access to it at the same time, although Rockstar has yet to release specific times for unlocking or how different time zones will be taken into account.
