GTA 6 costs $79.99 / £69.99 for the Standard Edition and $99.99 / £89.99 for the Ultimate Edition. Both are available digitally; “physical” means a box with a download code, because there is no disc. Pre-orders opened 25 June 2026 and the game releases 19 November 2026.
Everyone who buys before 20 November gets the Vintage Vice City Pack. Everyone who buys digitally gets a month of GTA+.
The two editions at a glance
| Standard — $79.99 / £69.99 | Ultimate — $99.99 / £89.99 | |
|---|---|---|
| Full campaign | Yes | Yes |
| Vintage Vice City Pack | Yes, if bought before 20 Nov | Yes, if bought before 20 Nov |
| One month of GTA+ | Yes, digital purchases | Yes, digital purchases |
| Exclusive vehicles and garages | No | Yes |
| Exclusive weapons and variants | No | Yes |
| Exclusive outfits and tattoos | No | Yes |
| Customisation vendors and shops | No | Yes |
| Extra activities | No | Yes |
What everyone gets: the Vintage Vice City Pack
- ’55 Vapid Stanier — a classic sedan stored in the Shore Court garage near Ocean Beach, which also comes with a weapon locker and a place to fence stolen goods.
- Outfits and hairstyles — Jason’s vintage pastel linen suit; Lucia’s red sequin mini dress and curls.
- Exclusive weapon pattern — a tropical print Rockstar describes as inspired by Tommy Vercetti’s palm tree shirt.
This is a buy-before-20-November bonus, not a pre-order-only exclusive in the strict sense. PC Gamer’s read, which we share, is that it will very likely be sold separately at some point after launch.
What the extra $20 buys
Vehicles and garages: ’95 Grotti Cheetah; a Ganado Retro Build for Jason’s pickup; a Shitzu Squalo boat at Washington Beach with a weapons crate; a ’67 Vapid Dominator Buggy with the Paradise Garage in Watson Bay; plus a Dinka Enduro motorcycle and a Crest Kayak at Jason’s safehouse.
Weapons and cosmetics: his-and-hers Hawk & Little Morgan Revolvers with palm-tree-etched grips and scopes; engraved variants of Jason’s Girardi ES9 and Lucia’s Klose K17 pistols; a Vice City Style outfit and tattoo set; and Goodtime Gear, themed on an in-world TV character called Macca the Alligator.
Vendors and activities — the part people argue about:
| Unlock | What it is |
|---|---|
| Classic Car Collection | Find and restore abandoned project cars for a collector named Wyman |
| Ptt Youngin$ Compound | Raid a Southside Vice City gang compound for contraband |
| Rideout Customs | Vehicle customisation, interiors, rims, donk styling |
| Sara’s Unisex Salon | Hair, facial hair, makeup, nails for both protagonists |
| Stock 305 | Streetwear shop in Stockyard |
| Electric Fang Tattoo | 50+ tattoos designed by the collective FAILE |
| One-Eyed Willie’s | Lake Leonida off-road mod shop |
Rockstar says Ultimate content unlocks progressively across story chapters rather than all at once.
Is the Ultimate Edition worth it?
Our answer: probably not right now, for most people.
The argument against buying it in August is timing, not value. There is no announced deadline on the Ultimate content — the only deadline is 20 November, and that applies to the Vintage pack, which the Standard Edition also gets. Deluxe-tier content of this shape is routinely sold as a standalone upgrade after launch, and PC Gamer explicitly advises not feeling pressured to decide now. If Rockstar does sell it separately, you will have lost nothing by waiting to see whether you actually want a salon.
The argument for buying it: if you know you are the person who spends forty hours in GTA’s clothing menus, four shops and a tattoo parlour for $20 is not a bad rate, and buying up front avoids the mild indignity of a store page prompting you mid-campaign.
Why the pricing was controversial
Two separate objections got tangled together at reveal, and they deserve separating.
The $79.99 base price. GTA 6 sits $10 above the current standard for a big-budget release. That drew complaint but not much shock — the industry has been drifting toward $80 for a while, and pre-order behaviour suggests the price is not the barrier. Zelnick told analysts on 7 August that pre-orders were “unprecedented and astonishing” and that “Rockstar got it right in terms of the pricing.”
The Ultimate Edition’s contents. This is the sharper objection. Earning dirty money and then spending it on clothes, tattoos, cars and property is arguably a core loop of a Grand Theft Auto campaign, not an accessory to it. Gating a salon, two clothing shops, two mod shops and a restoration questline behind a paid tier changes what the base game contains. PC Gamer characterised it as “essentially locking cut-content behind an upgrade.”
Both things can be true at once: $79.99 is a defensible price for the base game, and moving customisation vendors into a $99.99 tier is a real change to what “the base game” means.
Practical notes before you buy
- Digital vs boxed. The box is a download code. Boxes ship 12 November so you can redeem and pre-load early. There is no collector’s advantage, no disc, and no resale value.
- Don’t expect a discount. Rockstar has historically held GTA pricing for a very long time, and a digital-only launch removes the retail price competition that usually drags a physical release down within months.
- Pre-load opens 12 November for everyone who has pre-ordered.
- Platform. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only. No PC version is announced, so a PC purchase is not currently an option to weigh.