GTA VI is a worrying sign for the future of physical games
Overview & Key Takeaways
Rockstar Games has finally given Grand Theft Auto VI a price ahead of the game's November 19th launch. But while announcing that the game would cost $79.99, Rockstar also confirmed that the physical versions of GTA VI won't include a disc, and instead will only contain a download code inside the box. Not only is […]
Rockstar Games has finally given Grand Theft Auto VI a price ahead of the game’s November 19th launch. But while announcing that the game would cost $79.99, Rockstar also confirmed that the physical versions of GTA VI won’t include a disc, and instead will only contain a download code inside the box. Not only is that a disappointing decision for people who like to own physical games, but given the scale of the next GTA, it also sets a bad precedent for the rest of the industry.
It’s no secret that digital games have overtaken physical ones. The sales data proves it: Capcom, for example, recently announced that 93 percent of its games were sold digitally in its last fiscal year, and it expects that number to go up next fiscal year. Devices like the PlayStation Pro, Xbox Series S, and Steam Machine don’t have an included disc drive, further exacerbating the issue.
There are a lot of advantages to buying digital. You can start a download from your couch. You can store multiple games on one hard drive so you don’t have to get up to play something else. Storefronts like Steam or the PlayStation Store don’t run out of inventory of the newest game you’re interested in, and you can often get games at a cheaper price thanks to frequent sales.
But it’s becoming increasingly clear that digital ownership has significant disadvantages, too. If a game you don’t own digitally is removed from a storefront, whether that’s for things like licensing, artificially limited availability, or even the store eventually closing down, your only option is to hope you can find a physical version. If your account on a platform is banned, even if that ban isn’t warranted, you might be locked out of your digital library with no way to play those games unless you buy them again or hope your account gets restored. You can’t sell or trade digital games you’ve purchased, and while there are ways to share digital games, they require some work and are usually intended just for families.
It’s also much harder to preserve digital games because they only “exist” on the hard drive of a console, PC, or device they were downloaded to. This is an issue across many industries, not just console games; there are multiple examples of things like mobile games and streaming shows becoming lost for good when they don’t have a physical version. Without physical versions, you also can’t find a used version of a game at a garage sale or a local game shop.
Yes, digital games can be much more convenient. But what you gain in convenience, you lose in permanence. And in many ways, digital games just aren’t as easy as handing a disc to a friend.
Rockstar didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment about why it’s going digital-only for GTA VI and if it ever plans to launch a physical version. We can speculate some reasons why, though. I’d suspect the decision was made in part to prevent leaks; by only being available digitally, Rockstar can ensure that GTA VI unlocks at the same exact time for everyone. (The game has already had significant issues with leaks.) The digital-only choice might also indicate that the game has a massive file size that’s too big for PlayStation and Xbox game discs.
Going digital-only isn’t an entirely new concept. Other publishers have taken the code-in-a-box approach in the past, like Bethesda did for Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition and Skyrim Anniversary on the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo also gives publishers the option to offer game-key cards for the Switch 2, which are another way to sell a box at a store that contains a license for a game that you have to download from the internet to play. But game-key cards aren’t locked to a Nintendo account, meaning you can share a game with a friend even though they’ll have to download it themselves.
In the case of GTA VI, everyone will have to buy their own copy of the game, whether that’s from a digital storefront or at a physical store to get a one-time download code in a box. (Though at least one retailer isn’t stocking the game.) And the entire industry will be watching how GTA VI does — it’s a game so big it’s altering the entire 2026 release calendar — so Rockstar’s code-in-a-box decision could mark a turning point that might embolden even more publishers to do the same. If more games follow suit, it would make a medium that’s already hard enough to share and preserve even more brittle than before.
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- Jay Peters
- Entertainment
- Gaming
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