It’s safe to say that every time official news of GTA 6 hits everyone’s timelines, it ends up being the story of the day.
All Rockstar Games had to do was drop an announcement about when pre-orders were going live, with a seconds-long clip showing off the game’s box art, to send gamers into a frenzy.
And now that those pre-orders have gone live, I’m being treated to my PS5 “Welcome Section” being adorned with promotional material for November 19’s blockbuster gaming release and tweets from friends excitedly explaining how they secured their digital copy.
The hype surrounding the next mainline installment in one of, if not THE, biggest entertainment properties of all time is hard to ignore. But what’s equally difficult to look past is the anger that’s brewing among gamers for two reasons: GTA 6’s physical copies will only come packaged with a digital code for the game, and the Ultimate Edition comes with a host of content that won’t be available to anyone who gets the Standard Edition.
And considering the rumors circulating months before that alluded to GTA 6 launching at a standard price of $100, it turns out that it’s technically true once you realize the Ultimate Edition is truly the full experience fans have been eagerly waiting for.
$100 for the full Vice City experience? Yep, time to pay up
So here’s a full breakdown of what comes with both the Standard and Ultimate Editions of GTA 6:
- GTA 6 Standard Edition ($79.99): One free month of GTA+ and the Vintage Vice City Pack (this comes with this ‘55 Vapid Stanier Sedan, a garage located near Ocean Beach, additional outfits & hairstyles for Jason & Lucia and a special firearm pattern set).
- GTA 6 Ultimate Edition ($99.99): One free month of GTA+, The Vintage Vice City Pack, The ‘95 Grotti Cheetah sports car, the Hawk & Little Morgan Revolver, personalized weapon variants, Vice City Style outfits, hairstyles, tattoos & more, Jason’s Safehouse Vehicles, a Retro Build customization option for Jason’s Vapid Ganado vehicle, the Shitzu Squalo boat, the ‘67 Vapid Dominator Buggy & Garage, the Goodtime Gear capsule collection of additional apparel & accessories, a raid mission that takes players to the PTT Youngin$ Compound, a classic car collection sidequest and special destinations that offer more customization options (Rideout Customs for vehicles, Sara’s Unisex Salon for hair & nails, Stock 305 for streetwear, Electric Fang Tattoo for tattoos and One-Eyed Willie’s for off-road vehicle mods).
Just by looking at everything that comes with the Ultimate Edition, you’d be hard-pressed to think GTA 6’s Standard Edition is actually worth buying.
For a gaming franchise so revered for its vast array of customization and overall player expression, locking a whole gamut of those vehicle and character modification options behind a $100 price tag is egregious. What’s even more upsetting is that two missions are also being held off from the game’s Standard Edition and are only being made playable to those who plop down the high entry fee for the Ultimate Edition.
This isn't the first time Rockstar Games has cut off one of their game's full content slate behind a pricier version, by the way. Red Dead Redemption 2's Ultimate Edition asked gamers to cough up more money to get access to exclusive story content that included a bank robbery mission. So, in other words, we should've seen this GTA 6 Ultimate Edition fiasco coming from a mile away.
As an old head who came up during an age of gaming where Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo cartridges retailed from $50 to $100 (I’ll never forget Phantasy Star IV asking young gamers like me for $99 just to bring it home), I’m sadly become accustomed to paying an arm and a leg for the full experience for my favorite IPs. And as someone who’s addicted to fighting games, I’m used to pouring hundreds of dollars into today’s gamut of fighters as they ask me to pay extra for season passes, costumes, battle passes, in-game currency, etc.
It’s also become too much to stomach how gaming publishers just want to extract as much money from their consumers as possible. Seeing how GTA 6’s Ultimate Edition is truly the de facto full experience that fans may just be forced to buy is, to put it simply, nasty work. I’m just as disappointed in this news as I was when Capcom forced everyone to pay for DLC just to see the true ending of Asura’s Wrath, since the base game ended on a cliffhanger.
Bottom line
I’m confident that GTA 6 will be an amazing game—Rockstar Games' penchant for crafting truly immersive, satisfying open-world experiences, backed by memorable stories and an unforgettable cast of characters, has never wavered.
But the shocking confirmation that the REAL full GTA 6 experience is locked behind a $100 price tag is definitely a tough pill to swallow. I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet on the Ultimate Edition since the prospect of trekking around Leonida to discover vintage cars and participating in an explosive raid is all too enticing for me to pass up. Yes, I’m sadly a part of the problem.
At least the rumor of the disc version of GTA 6 launching in December makes me slightly less upset about this whole deal.
Fingers crossed that Rockstar makes the next iteration of GTA Online a part of the GTA 6 package rather than an entirely separate digital purchase. They wouldn't go that far...would they?
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