Rockstar Games has found a new way to annoy collectors by making Grand Theft Auto VI’s boxed edition a download code.
According to the Verge Rockstar Games has priced Grand Theft Auto VI at $79.99 and confirmed that physical versions will not include a disk. Instead, the box will contain a one-time download code when the game launches on 19 November.
Not only is that pants 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.
Digital games have obvious perks. Players can start downloads from the sofa, keep several games on one drive and avoid swapping discs like it is 2009. Storefronts such as Steam and the PlayStation Store do not run out of stock and digital games often get cheaper through frequent sales.
But digital ownership has some nasty catches. When a game disappears from a storefront because of licensing, limited availability or a store shutdown, buyers are left hoping for a physical copy.
If a platform account is banned, even wrongly, players can be locked out of a digital library they thought they owned. It prevents people from selling or trading digital games. Sharing them can be done, but it tends to be fiddly and aimed at families rather than normal human game lending.
Preserving digital games is harder because they only “exist” on the storage of the machine that downloaded them.
It is unclear whether Rockstar Games will ever release a proper physical version of GTA VI.
The Verge suspects the choice may be partly about stopping leaks, because “by only being available digitally, Rockstar can ensure that GTA VI unlocks at the same exact time for everyone.”
The digital-only choice might also indicate that the game has a massive file size that’s too big for PlayStation and Xbox game disks.
