We recently reported on an Amazon listing that appeared for a version of Grand Theft Auto 5 subtitled "Premium Edition", and now a new official rating seemingly confirms that this new release is coming. The product page was for the PS4 release of this new version of the game, though no description was found as to what this Premium Edition would contain, and the listing was taken down swiftly.
Now, the South Korean Ratings Board has put out ratings for both a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of "Grand Theft Auto V Premium Edition".
The rating itself was filed on the 7th of March, while the Amazon listing which was the first possible leak about this unannounced version indicated a release date of the 25th of March. Since Rockstar is known to announce things last minute, or outright release games with zero notice in advance, this doesn't mean that the preliminary release date was necessarily incorrect or a placeholder.
After the Amazon listing was first spotted, speculation instantly began regarding what this Premium Edition might entail. Since GTA 5 hasn't received any paid DLC at all, it couldn't be some kind of analogue for "game of the year editions" or "complete editions" that some other titles get years after launch.
The most likely explanation is that it is a version of the game which includes the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack, a paid in-game "shortcut" for the multiplayer mode, GTA Online, that grants players a number of items and some currency. All of this can be acquired through gameplay, but would take a lot of grinding.
Other theories have popped up as well.
It is possible that this is just a kind of re-release for the Collector's Edition, which contained a number of unique items for players. Since this edition was only available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and is now a rarity with an inflated price and since character transfers have been ceased there is no way to get those items to current-gen accounts, a rebranded re-release could be worth it for players who want access to them.
Another possibility, though the least likely of them all, is that due to the continued success of GTA Online, Take-Two wants to broaden its player base further by separating the single player portion and Online into two different products, selling each for a lower price, whilst rebranding the combined, gestalt product as this Premium Edition. However, there are no ratings up for any variant subtitlings of GTA 5, which would be the separate product versions of story mode and Online.
Nonetheless, this official rating practically confirms that this new version is going to be released sometime soon. This week did see Rockstar missing their usual DLC schedule for the first time in a while, meaning there might be something brewing behind closed doors which requires a lot of attention from the team.
Chances are we'll get some further news regarding this GTA 5 Premium Edition in the coming weeks.
