What to buy before launch
Honest buying guides for the months before release. Written for people who already own a console and want to know which upgrade is worth it and which one is a waste.
What you almost certainly do not need to buy
Start here, because it saves most people money. The game runs on the console you already own, provided that console is one of the two it launches on. There is no special edition of the hardware you need, no accessory that unlocks anything, and nothing about the game requires you to upgrade a working machine.
Which consoles are in and which are out is on the platforms page, and if you are on a PC and waiting, the PC page covers what has and has not been said.
The one thing worth checking now
Storage. This is a large open-world release with high-resolution assets and full voice work in several languages, and consoles that have been in use for a couple of years are usually far closer to full than their owner thinks. The exact download size has not been published yet, which is covered on the file size page, but the useful move is not to wait for the number. It is to make room before launch week, when prices on the drives that matter get strange.
How these guides are written
Every guide is written by one person, with the reasoning on the page rather than a specification table copied from a retailer. Nobody pays to be included, nobody sees a guide before it is published, and where the honest answer is that your current gear is fine, that is what the guide says even though it earns nothing.
The links are affiliate links, which means a commission if you buy through one, at no extra cost to you. That is the whole business model of this section and it is set out in full in the affiliate disclosure. These pages carry no display advertising at all, because mixing ads from the highest bidder into a page whose job is helping you decide what to buy is a conflict we would rather not have.
We do not print prices
Retail prices move constantly, and a figure written into an article is wrong within a week and misleading for as long as it stays up. Follow the link and the retailer shows you what it costs today. Stock, delivery dates and bundle contents are theirs too, and can change after we publish.