June 2 – 19, 2016, Starter Edition was available for about half the full price, but you had less content unlocked right away and grinding required to unlock them is greatly increased. Official FAQ comparison shows that to achieve the same unlock in starter edition you need to grind for about 16 hours compared to just 1 hour in the normal version. No easy/cheap way was offered to upgrade to normal version if the player ever wanted it, only via microtransactions for partial content.
source: /support.ubi.com/en-GB/faqs/000025116/Starter-Edition-FAQ