E&E leaking profusely has been at the forefront of any GTA news in recent weeks, giving Rockstar Games a merciful respite from media attention focused on the failure of The Definitive Edition to be at all definitive. We’ve already learned about chameleon paint jobs, racing overhauls and possible delays. This time the usual suspects - long-time GTA leaker Tez2 and serial data miner WildBrick - bring us two new snippets of information, one of which raises questions about how exactly the new content and enhancements will appear on PC, if at all. First up, we have indication that Rockstar will be expanding upon the foundations laid by The Cayo Perico Heist. Fans have been clamoring for some kind of map expansion for years now, with Los Santos and Blaine County feeling a bit cramped - the actual game world in which you mainly play has remained unchanged since launch back in 2013, however the activities and content kept pouring in. Sooner or later, we’re going to need more space. We already got that in a limited form with Cayo Perico, a separate map centered around the part-resort, part-drug cartel headquarters island of the same name. According to Tez2, original plans for Cayo Perico and its titular DLC were much grander than what we got, however Rockstar deliberately held back portions of that update with plans of putting it into the E&E instead. Thus while the main, larger map we’ve all gotten used to is remaining unchanged, it seems that Cayo Perico is getting some new landmasses added, alongside new content. Data mining has already revealed daily collectibles that players will need to look for with metal detectors, and changes coming to the beach party area. Following the recent release of The Contract, Rockstar Games has hinted that we can expect more story-focused DLC in a similar vein hitting the game in the future. Putting these two hints together, we wouldn’t be surprised if a future ‘chapter’ of this Online storyline would take place out in the tropical islands. Vacation destinations aren’t the only thing being added to the game with Expanded and Enhanced. Data mining has also revealed a new clothing category which, quite tellingly, has been named Gen 9 Exclusive. This seems to be a work-in-progress catch all category for all in-game clothing items that are being added in E&E, and will remain exclusive to this latest release.
Featuring exclusive clothing items for transferring characters to E&E. This may be one of many bonuses Rockstar is planning for Returning Players. — Tez2 (@TezFunz2) January 25, 2022 We expected as much, but the interesting bit is that Rockstar seems to be offering some, or all, of these new clothes as a free incentive for returning players using the character transfer option. Back when the Enhanced Edition brought GTA 5 to Xbox One and PlayStation 4, then later to PC, the game was not playable on these platforms at all, and a transfer feature was implemented. Here, players can play GTA 5 and Online on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 thanks to backwards compatibility, so having to transfer to a new version of the game, which you need to buy again, on the same platforms maybe a harder pill to swallow. Rockstar is anticipating this with incentives, but in-game clothes probably won’t cut it. We’re also curious how things will play out on PC - is it going to be a paid upgrade, or a full new release on that platform too? Will PC receive the new content and features at all? If it does, we unfortunately do not see it being in the form of free updates and patches if on console it is a whole new paid rerelease. These questions are bound to be answered in March, when GTA 5 Expanded and Enhanced launches worldwide.
