When pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 went live on Wednesday, developer Rockstar delivered a bombshell: customers who opted for the physical edition would receive a box containing nothing more than a code for a digital download.
The decision has sent shockwaves through the gaming community. "My initial reaction was one of confusion and shock," said Ben, a 24-year-old UK gamer who covers GTA news on social media under the handle 'videotech'. The move runs counter to earlier assurances from executives at Rockstar's parent company. In an interview with Variety in February, Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Take-Two, had said a digital-only launch was "not the plan".
“GTA 6 physical edition will contain only a digital code, not a disc, raising questions about game ownership.”
Ben said the earlier statement had led many to hope the physical disc would be available at launch – and for more than sentimental reasons. "An important benefit of owning a disc is that you can lend the game to a friend or sell it later," he said. Online retailers selling the physical edition have confirmed that, as with other digital codes, the GTA 6 code is single-use and will become invalid after it is redeemed.
Rockstar revealed that the price of GTA 6 will be £70 for a standard edition and £90 for its more premium edition.
The shift towards digital-only is already well underway. Digital sales now account for the vast majority of game revenue, and consoles without physical disc drives are becoming increasingly common. Mat Piscatella, senior director and video game industry advisor at market research firm Circana, posted 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".
For some gamers, the news was less of an upset. "I'm pretty much all digital these days, I download most of my games directly onto my console," said Alogirlx, a gaming content creator from Canada, on the BBC's What in the World podcast. "Whether there's a physical disc or not it doesn't really change anything for me," she added.
With physical game sales at an all-time low, the question of whether the disc is truly dead – and what that means for ownership – looms ever larger.