When pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 went live on Thursday, developer Rockstar delivered a bombshell: customers who opted for the physical edition would receive a box containing nothing but a code for a digital download. No disc. No map. Not even a manual. Just a single-use code that, as online retailers have confirmed, will become invalid after redemption.
For Ben, a 24-year-old UK gamer who covers GTA news under the handle 'videotech', the announcement was jarring. “My initial reaction was one of confusion and shock,” he told the BBC. Just two months earlier, in an interview with Variety, Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Rockstar's parent company Take-Two, had said a disc-free launch was “not the plan”. That statement fuelled hope among fans that a physical disc would still be available — and not just for nostalgia. “An important benefit of owning a disc is that you can lend the game to a friend or sell it later,” Ben said.
“GTA 6 pre-orders open with physical edition containing only a download code, sparking debate over disc's future.”
Rockstar revealed the standard edition of GTA 6 will cost £70, with a premium edition at £90. But with no disc inside the box, the question of ownership in the digital age has resurfaced. Digital sales already account for the vast majority of game revenue, and consoles without physical drives are becoming the norm. Mat Piscatella, senior director at market research firm Circana, pointed out that “more than half of all Xbox Series consoles in the US don't have a physical drive, while over a quarter of PS5's are the same.”
Some gamers are untroubled by the shift. Alogirlx, a gaming content creator from Canada, told the BBC's What in the World podcast: “I'm pretty much all digital these days, I download most of my games directly onto my console. Whether there's a physical disc or not it doesn't really change anything for me.”
But for others, the move by Rockstar — makers of one of the biggest franchises in entertainment history — feels like the final nail in the coffin for physical media. With music and films already largely digital, does the disc have a future? And if GTA 6, the most anticipated game in years, won't ship on one, what does that say about who really owns the games we buy?