When Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders opened, dev and publisher Rockstar Games announced that “physical copies” will not contain a disc. Instead, what you get is a code in a disc’s box. There has been plenty of discourse as to why that’s the case, and if that will be just the way it goes for the game. A recent report cites insiders that say that physical copies are truly dead, and that a recent official Rockstar Games email has been “misinterpreted by a hopeful internet”, per the report’s phrasing.
For context, there have been those that argue that the first batch of the “physical” release of Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar Games has opted not to put the game on a disc to prevent leaks. The claim is that, in the following months, once the game has already been out and about, the game will be available on discs. This claim has been reinforced by an official email by the company, addressing the claim, which says things like “you will be able to acquire a physical copy during the following months”.
All that being said, The Hollywood Reporter cites a source with knowledge of plans for the game who said that there will not be any discs for Grand Theft Auto VI. While the outlet claims to have confirmed the authenticity of the email, the sources says it has been optimistically interpreted that way, when “physical copy” in this instance just means the box with the code. As for the following months, this refers to the following months after pre-orders open for the game, not when it releases on 19 November.
The report does mention that all of this is true “at this point in time”. While this means that there’s a non-zero percent chance of things changing, it’s still pretty close to zero.
Because this is Grand Theft Auto VI that we’re talking about, this will basically cement the rising trend of digital-only videogame releases. It’s not the self-fulfilling prophecy that is Nintendo financially punishing customers for buying physical, but this is undeniably another bullet into vital organs of physical releases.
(Source: THR, @GTASixInfo / X)
