Video Games Plus, a gaming retailer based out of Canada, and an independent gaming retailer known as Loot Box Gaming have both stated that they won’t be selling GTA 6.
Not huge retailers in the grand scheme of things, but interesting to see at least some taking a stand especially when they are almost certainly losing out on money by doing so.
Half of the games on steam don’t have physical releases anymore. I don’t know what IGN is on about
Most of the games on Steam don’t have Rockstar’s budget.
Half? You mean 99.99%? Take any random indie game… find its physical copy. I’ll wait.
That’s not even counting the miles and miles of asset-flip slop that’s out there.
This is a fight retailers lost along time ago, even if they don’t realize it. Even if it upsets some segment of the game buying population digital delivery and store fronts right on the console/PC are many orders of magnitude more convenient. And if the consumer loves one thing above cheap and flexible it is convenient.
It’s convenient for some customers, but the reason retailers like GameSpot have been able to hang on for so long is because it’s really inconvenient for other customers. People with smaller budgets rely on the second-hand market, buying and reselling one or two games at a time versus wanting to own forever.
2ND Hand? The thing I boycotted steam for so long when it released? Out of fear it will A) control the market and B) kill 2nd Hand games.
Which it did…long ago. Which games could you buy 2nd Hand?
Steam killed the second-hand market for PC, but PC only accounts for about half of the gaming market. All those other people? Capable of buying used and trading in physical media.
It’s interesting to watch the cycle of bullshit that happens around every hyped game.
Years up to the release, people are full of wild speculation, impossible expectations, and excitement.
Months up to the release, suddenly every piece of news is blown massively out of proportion. People are now extremely overreacting to every minor piece of news like it’s going to end this game.
The internet is so boring when it comes to video games. Reviews have become useless because nothing is ever good enough. Online discourse is worthless because people are always focused on the weird parts of a game or it’s release.
Its such a weird thing to watch from a PC gamer perspective. The game won’t release on PC for another year or longer after consoles. I’m really not feeling like I’m missing out or anything, if anything it’s like I’m standing back and watching a potential train wreck from afar.
Rockstar has been hyping this game up like it’s the next coming of Christ and there’s just no way it lives up to that much hype. People complaining about the lack of physical media, or the confusion surrounding paid DLC. I’ll just sit back and watch what happens. If it releases flawlessly with zero issues, then I’ll look forward to the PC release. If it crashes and burns, well they have a year to fix it and to convince me it’s worth it.
or the reviews are in lines of “brings nothing new, 9/10”
It’s like anything… Think about how many people ride bicycles. Now go to ANY online community where people talk about cycling; it will likely be the most insufferably pedantic assholes you can imagine.
99% of people who buy video games don’t identify as “gamers”, they don’t read gaming media, and they certainly don’t interact with gaming discussion online.
As both an industry professional (former), and a self-identified gamer, I stopped giving a shit what “core gamers” had to say 10 years ago.
I don’t think this is an overreaction. As a PC gamer, this completely ruins my plans for playing the game. I was planning to buy a used console and the physical edition of the game, so I could resell both when the game came out on PC. This is another entry into “you will own nothing and be happy.”
i’m fortunate to have some friends who are close enough we trust each other to lend consoles. we tend to swap the nintendo/playstation for about a month a year so we can catch up on whatever we missed the most (and we’ve bought each other games just so we can play them, it’s cute)
Games like that don’t really fit on discs anymore when they are probably over 100GB. So you get a disc and put it in the console and then it downloads 150GB more content onto the console, that means the disc is just a license key anyway.
What is a bigger issue is that they want to charge $80+ for a game. I’m not going to pay that much for any game.
What’s wrong with the disk being a license key? That’d work just fine for my plan of reselling the game and console when it comes out on PC.
When the studio stops hosting the game to download, the license key is worthless.
I suppose I should clarify that I’m not advocating for it, but it’d be better than a digital key that’ll be tied to your account forever.
Two discs. You put in one, it installs half the game, you put in the other, it installs the rest of the way. Or three or even more discs if the game is THAT big.
The PS4 can handle this, a couple PS5-era games we got for PS4 came on two discs.
Games came on multiple disks back in the day. Why not now?
Why even? I stopped using discs when CDs were the thing. Skipped DVD and bluray completely. Don’t even had a drive for over a decade now.
So you can own your game.
You own the games you downloaded, they’re on your machine.
To what end? The reason games came on multiple disks back in the day is because Internet speeds were slow (if they were there at all.) it was way faster to load via disk, and companies couldn’t even count on users to have a stable Internet connection anyway.
That’s not true anymore. The only reason physical disks exist at all now is more out of tradition than anything practical.
I don’t know how to make you understand the value of owning your own things.
Do you think you don’t own a digital copy of every piece of downloaded digital media?
No. You don’t. A copy that can be remotely deactivated is not something you own. If you can’t use it if the company were to go bankrupt, then you don’t own it.
They do now, not just in the past. FF7 Rebirth shipped on multiple discs.
there are no discs anymore, once agin this has been a trend for 10 years now, people dont know this, cause they dont buy physical versions.
I’d prefer if there was though. I’d be quite happy buying a game that requires 6 discs. It costs them less than a dollar for each disc, the greedy fucks.
What’s the reason for no disc? Is this another one of those ‘you buy it but you don’t really own it’ things?
They’ll try to gaslight you abiut how the game is too big to fit kn disc’s, but the real reason is to prevent aftermarket sales. I’m sure they see every used game sale as lost revenue.
Well that sucks.
Allegedly it’s because Rockstar doesn’t want leaks, which strikes me as a very stupid reason. So fucking what if gameplay is released a week early? If anything it’s free advertising.
Literally the only reason to get the physical on this is if it’s cheaper. Which is entirely possible in the UK, because retail often goes £5 cheaper.
They could at least put a printed map or poster in the box like in ye olden times.
Or they could give you a disc and all of that like they used to
From what I understand, for GTA 6 it would be more like 6 discs. But its not like the discs cost them a fortune either.
A map? That sounds like DLC.
Those same stores have likely happily sold physical cases for PC games containing nothing but a Steam code.
PR posturing.
I was so annoyed when I went to a midnight release of Fallout 4, stood in line with loud teenagers, got my disk, got home, and there was a fucking code in it.
(No hate on the teens having a nice time with their friends, but I would not have entered their space if I knew there was no benefit).
That’s odd, my Fallout 4 was on a disc for PS4. Did you get it for PC?
I got it as a disk for PC because I had an incredibly slow and metered internet connection. It turned out to not even have half of the game. I had to pay I think $90 to download it. And then I hated the game
Yes.
I’m not familiar with Loot Box Gaming, but VGP does not sell pc games.
Lol, haven’t bought physical in years. Means nothing to me. Digital for life
Digital until they take it away from you having already got your money.
I remember buying GTA V on disc and then having to wait an entire day for the day 1 patch to download on my slow ass rural bumfuck ADSL connection. Disc or no, if it has online activation it ain’t yours.
Video Game Plus pointed to its policy of not selling games that only offer digital codes, and as a result, it will not sell the biggest game of 2026. The retailer noted that this isn’t a reflection of Rockstar Games or the game itself, but argued that it’s part of their goal of preserving physical media.
Based
“The biggest game of 2026”
Is it a terabyte or something?
300GB apparently. So not far off. Especially with SSD prices these days.
WTF…so much for optimization.
Not surprised they’re large, mostly because the asset sizes are dictated by what screen resolution people play (yeah, 1440p fomo) and how big their monitors are (27" or bust), and how often they stream or make screenshots.
Blame the people wanting to be able to see every flies asshole. Textures get huge fast.
That’s such a weird example
It is. But I don’t think it’s any more weird than photo realistic horse balls that seem to have been all the rage a short while ago.
We don’t frequent the same internet circles apparently
Man, they should offer disc anyway so gen-z can experience the “please insert disc 2 and press continue” while installing.
It’ll be the Windows 95 14-disk floppy set all over again, but this time with 18 DVDs
I see you were also traumatized by the floppy release. Lol
I had pre-ordered the CD release from Babbage’s, and went to pick that up. Being that I was only 15, I had to get a ride, and it was also 45 min each way, so this wasn’t exactly easy for me.
When I got home, I still hadn’t realized they gave me the wrong one and cracked it open to see the horror. Said screw it, I wasn’t going to be able to go back anytime soon and installed it for the next hour or more.
Luckily, because this was pre-activation key (we remember those days, right? … right??), when I took it back, they apologized and gave me the right one without much problem.
Only installed once from 14 floppies, but it still was terrible.
There are already games with dedicated install discs like that.
Fuck… I’d have to delete at least 5 other games to make room…
5? In a closet behind me I have a physical disk containing 4 full games, including their scanned manuals, on one CD. That’s right, a CD, not a DVD.
Fifteen times the size of the smallest PS3.
Isn’t a series S as low as 256gb?
That tells me the game needs to be under that
I have a Series S and the usable storage is around the 360GB mark.
I’m not going to buy GTA6 but imagine having to dedicate your whole console to 1 game :(
Lol, soon we will be buying games on game consoles instead of disks.
We’ll be back to physical memory cards.
No, but the packaging is a refrigerator box.
the keycode is laser-etched onto one of the nails holding it together.
Fragile…it’s italian!
That looks like a major award!
It is a reflection though. A box with a piece of paper in it is a direct reflection of fucking idiocy.
Can I order the disc and return it from my least favorite online marketplace after I use the code?
This game is way too overhyped and I’ve played GTA 3, San Andreas, 4 and 5.
San Andreas was the best one for me, 4 was boring because of all the constant let’s go play darts, let’s go to the strip club especially with Roman fuck you Roman, 5 i completed because i was hoping that by the end i’d like it because it was worth it, it wasn’t and 3 was ok but that was during the PS2 era so if i played it today might have different opinion.
Haven’t seen much about it or i just missed it other than it’s a brother sister game and if it’s like 4 and 5 i won’t even bother watching a YT story video but if it’s kinda like San Andreas then it might have a chance with me.
I liked 4, especially if you also played the DLCs you saw how the different characters intertwined, especially the diamond story, you for the whole picture how the diamonds changed hands, Pulp Fiction style.
I kinda liked the memes from 4. When online worked, I did the swing set glitch for hours at a time. 5 had the heist missions and those were fun.
But everything was hampered by their dog shit shooting mechanics. In a game where you shoot this much, it shouldn’t feel so bad.
That swing set glitch was the best thing about 4.
Parachute glitch was the best time. The dudes I played with back then came up with tons of game modes based around it.
Same, Vice City and San Andreas are the only GTA games I enjoyed, got GTA 5 for free on Epic played it for a bit and got bored and dropped it, I do not like the photo real look, GTA works best with the slightly cartoons, janky graphics of San Andreas, the photo real shit has no soul
5 was really mid because of the story. 2/3 of the characters you play as have already reached the end of their character arcs, and they spend most of the time bitching about how they’d rather not be doing any of the missions you’re forced to do. Really brings home how much of the missions are unnecessary bullshit they’re roped into by weird plot contrivances. Even the ones where they’re doing a big heist for huge profits … why? Again, 2/3 of them already have plenty of money and other shit going on. They don’t need it. Splitting it into 3 characters is also a mistake, IMO – it dilutes your experience with each one, so you never really bond with or identify with any of them as much as you might if there was only 1 playable character.
And then there’s the money and progression. In SA, you start out with next to nothing. There’s lots of stuff you can’t afford, which makes every dollar you manage to gain meaningful. Collecting stuff and completing missions can mean the difference between being able to afford a cool gun or not, between being able to afford a new safehouse or not. You eventually progress to being able to afford all of it … through your own work and effort. And then the whole gang wars part gives you even more progression as you slowly take over all the gang territory in the city. But in 5, again 2/3 of the characters start with enough money to afford anything in the game. And the 3rd character quickly gains just as much after only a few missions. There was never a single point in all of playing through 5 where I found anything they couldn’t already afford. That really robs the game of a sense of progression. You never really unlock anything new that you couldn’t have before (aside from a few safehouse locations that are mission-related). You have no reason to care whether you’re collecting money and mission rewards or not – it’s all meaningless money that you’ll never spend anyway. And that again contributes to a sense of meaninglessness when it comes to the story missions. Completing a mission makes no difference to you or your character – just another arbitrary challenge to be overcome, and the only reward is getting a little closer to being able to say you finished the game.
What made SA great is the story and the sense of progression. If GTA 6 doesn’t bring that back, I think I’m ready to give up on the franchise.
5 felt like they half wrote 3 different games, realized they were running out of time, and then smushed them all together. Finishing the campaign becomes a chore long before the ending. Speaking of the ending if you do manage to chug through your reward is an abrupt and extremely weak ending that again feels like they just ran out of time
It’s crazy because then they plopped out red dead 2 which was a tremendously excellent narrative by comparison. They clearly have the means to make something fantastic.
I agree. The game themes are about making money through doing crimes. If the gameplay doesn’t match that then they fucked up. It’s one of the most trivial things to do with the design of the game, but they think telling players no ever is bad, so they hand everything to you. What’s the point of the game then? I’m assuming the only reason this isn’t the same for multiplayer is because then they couldn’t sell you the solution.
Respect
I’m not buying GTA 6 anyway
Same. I kinda liked gta 5. But i was more intrigued to play online with my friends. Remember the online trailers? People doing cool stuff and mess around in the sandbox? Yeah no, i forgot about people who would play gtao are people who play gta.
GTA online was awful. You can never do anything because you would always get blown up because they kept putting in stupid overpowered vehicles.
Plus anything cool required real money, or an insane amount of grinding.
This game is going to be a terd
