Is the Grand Theft Auto physical copy in the room with us? Apparently, we’ve all been played.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Rockstar will not offer physical copies of Grand Theft Auto VI; not now, not ever, including in the following months. The news is likely to land like a bag of bricks for stores that were hoping to just skip the opening day and sell physical copies once they arrived.
What this means is that we have everyone and their mother complaining about buying empty boxes with no add-ons, no booklets, and now no discs to put into your overpriced console.
The War Against Physical Media
Some of us have been fighting to keep physical media alive, with customers buying vinyls, taking physical photographs, choosing older phones to be less online, but Rockstar believes the future is headed the other way.
The disappointment in these circles is measurable, letting down even those who had been willing to give Rockstar the benefit of the doubt, on the off chance that the disc version had been delayed to prevent leaks or spoilers.
Rockstar will not offer physical copies of Grand Theft Auto VI; not now, not ever
Maybe this code-in-a-box arrangement works for people who just enjoy displaying the boxes on their shelves or just as a collector’s piece, but for the rest of us who enjoy actually having a disc at home, it’s a bad vibe.
The decision is also likely to have an economic impact beyond the usual storefronts. A digital-only release completely removes the ability to resell or lend GTA IV games to friends. It is a calculated move to artificially get more copies sold, and one that will hit resellers like CEX hard. It seems odd to push the boundaries of gamers so high when it is highly unlikely that Rockstar won’t get their money back.
