GTA VI is up for preorder and it’s already causing controversy

A piece of entertainment as hyped as Grand Theft Auto VI was always going to play by its own rules – which is exactly what seems to be happening, as Rockstar shared details on how it plans to offer its game to consumers. As previously confirmed, GTA VI is up for preorder at long last, scheduled to launch on November 19th for the PS5/PS5 Pro and Xbox Series S/X – but there are a few choices Take Two made that GTA fans need to be aware of before hitting that “Add to cart” button.

First things first: the standard edition of GTA VI is indeed more expensive than that of almost any other game of the current console generation. After years of speculation, it seems that Take Two decided to not get exceedingly greedy with the version of the game most consumers usually buy, so that version of Grand Theft Auto VI costs $79.99. It’s higher than the $69.99 price tag most AAA PlayStation or Xbox games come with nowadays, but a reasonable uptick given that particular title’s scope. Nintendo hit the same price point first last year with Mario Kart World for the Nintendo Switch 2, supposedly for the very same reason.

So GTA VI will not be the first game launching at $99.99 for its standard edition – as many gamers feared – but… here’s the thing: in some respects, it will. That’s because Rockstar will also be offering the Ultimate Edition of GTA VI, which comes with extra content, for $99.99. The problem is that (1) this extra content is noteworthy and (2) it includes a lot of exclusive customization options – a signature GTA feature – as well as certain action parts not present in the standard edition of the game.

Sure, most gamers can live without “an exclusive collection of premium vehicles, weapons and apparel”. But a car mod shop, a tattoo shop, a hair salon, a clothing store etc. sound like ways to get unique looks or abilities for vehicles, as well as certain looks for the main characters of the game – and they will all inaccessible to owners of the standard edition (unless they get the Ultimate Edition Upgrade later on).

The word “action” in the exclusive content list also implies there will be missions or activities that are absent in the standard edition of the title. A lot of GTA fans are disappointed by these news, some of them going so far as to call the Ultimate Edition “the full game” and that $99.99 price tag “the actual price” of GTA VI. It certainly seems similar to what a few game publishers did in the PS3/Xbox 360 days, locking specific content in a new title behind a paywall as DLC, even if the content itself was already on the game disc (purchasing the DLC just allowed the content to magically appear without actually downloading anything).

While drawing such parallels between that and the exclusive content offered by the Ultimate Edition of GTA VI may seem like an exaggeration – we have no idea how important this content actually is to the games experience as a whole, after all – if the Ultimate Edition Upgrade costs $19.99, one thing’s for sure: there will be even more people complaining about it online come November.

At this point it’s also worth noting that Grand Theft Auto VI is fast turning into a social experiment of sorts. What we basically have here is a company charging more – or considerably more – than anyone else for a product we know very little about: a game we have no idea how it actually plays or what new it brings to the table. Rockstar and Take Two didn’t even offer fans that elusive, eagerly-awaited third trailer that would not just create enthusiasm among the GTA community but at least show people what they are actually asked to pay for.

It’s fair to say that GTA VI, mere months before release, still rides on brand name value and pure hype alone – which may be an impressive power move on Rockstar’s part, but it may also backfire spectacularly if the game does not exceed consumer expectations that are already insanely high.

No physical disc in the retail version, no GTA Online at launch

Another thing people are already complaining about regarding GTA VI – rightly so too – is the fact that the physical edition of the title, the one retail stores all over the world will be carrying, will not actually offer the game in optical disc form. It will contain just a digital code consumers can use in the PlayStation Store or the Microsoft Store to download the game. It’s an unpopular approach some publishers already follow on the Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, but it’s somewhat more annoying in this particular case because of the higher price points GTA VI comes at (which make selling the game digitally even more profitable for Take Two).

Many speculate that Rockstar did this in order to minimize information leaks published online from illegally obtained physical copies of GTA VI before launch – if there’s a company that absolutely hates game spoilers, it’s this one – but other reasons make more sense. It’s highly likely that the latest GTA takes up more than 100GB of space even in compressed form, in which case the physical edition would need to come on two or more Blu-ray discs. Not including those now saves the game publisher even more money.

There may or may not be a disc-based version of the game at some point in the future: a Collector’s Edition like the GTA V one, for instance, with some additional items thrown in, would probably make sense at some point after the launch window of the game. It’s clear, though, that Take Two is determined to extract as much profit from GTA VI as it possibly can on release… which may be understandable given its development cost, but still rubs some players the wrong way.

Rockstar did what it can, at least, to help GTA VI have a smooth launch. People who preorder either edition of the game will be able to start preloading it on November 12th, so that it can be ready to unlock and play on November 19th. This does not necessarily mean that the PS Store or the Microsoft Store will not crash under the increased load of download requests on launch day – as it happened last year with The Hollow Knight: Silksong – but it should ease the burden on both services’ servers. Consumers who preorder any edition of GTA VI will also receive the bonus Vintage Vice City content pack (a collection of items inspired from GTA Vice City) and a free month of GTA+ access.

It’s worth noting that Take Two is keeping quiet about the GTA Online part of the whole equation: GTA VI is designated as a “single-player experience” in the PlayStation Store right now, implying that it may be a while before its multiplayer portion is offered to consumers. It took two weeks for the GTA Online part of GTA V to become available, but yours truly would not be surprised if it Rockstar needed more time in this case. As with so much else regarding Grand Theft Auto VI right now… we’ll just have to see, won’t we?