Take-Two Interactive has revealed most people are ‘skewing’ towards the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition, as the company rules out Christmas discounts.
The price of GTA 6 had been the source of much dread ahead of its announcement, but it turned out to be more reasonable than expected.
When pre-orders opened on June 25, Rockstar confirmed GTA 6’s standard edition costs £69.99, in line with other AAA games like Call Of Duty, while the Ultimate Edition costs £89.99. The latter comes with a bunch of Vice City cosmetics and a one month GTA+ subscription.
Take-Two Interactive has described the initial pre-order numbers as ‘astonishing’, without giving any specifics on figures. Now, the company’s CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has said more people are looking to buy the more expensive version.
In an interview with CNBC, when the interviewer suggested pre-order numbers were evenly split across both editions, Zelnick said: ‘Actually, it is skewing more to the premium edition.
‘That might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering now.’
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
The Ultimate Edition is only available digitally, so there’s little reason to pre-order it because – unlike the boxed standard edition copies with download codes in – there’s no fear that supplies will be limited at launch.
Later in the interview, Zelnick was asked about holiday discounts, with GTA 6 set to launch just before Black Friday and Christmas. Unsurprisingly, Take-Two and Rockstar likely won’t offer a price reduction, but Zelnick says other retailers are welcome to.
‘We obviously establish our pricing, and storefronts can do what they wish,’ he added. ‘We don’t have any capability to control that. So if they reduce their price, they reduce their margin on the sale.
‘There are situations where certain retailers will price down to drive demand for other things they will sell. I can’t tell you what will happen. I will tell you we preserved our pricing on GTA 5 for a very long time, much longer than a standard release of an entertainment property.’
While you can buy boxed copies of GTA 6 at a slightly cheaper price at retailers like Amazon, the demand likely won’t lead to any notable price drops around Christmas – especially as it’s such a highly anticipated game.
Just recently, Zelnick addressed the lack of physical disc in boxed copies of GTA 6, saying that they ‘don’t really make sense for the consumer’.
GTA 6 is set to launch across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19, 2026.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.