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.
I’ve said it before, but I really don’t get the GTA VI hype. The last Grand Theft Auto game being released over a decade ago isn’t any guarantee that the next one will be amazing - Duke Nukem, Metroid, Overwatch and Star Fox are examples of that. Also, anyone who’s been paying attention to the direction Rockstar games has been going for the last 5+ years would be pretty worried about how this game will actually turn out. A lot of stuff that used to be earned with in-game currencies in GTA online are only buyable with real money now. Their employee track record is horrible… Hearing about Rockstar not producing discs for their game doesn’t surprise me. Maybe GTA VI will “crash the industry” and all the things these YouTubers are saying, but it would be on status alone at the moment, not because we know this is going to be a great game.
If your only metric is “long dev cycles bad”, then yeah this looks bad because you’re comparing games stuck in development hell to a game that has demonstrably had like 8 years of real dev time. Additionally, it’s not like Rockstar have put out stinkers in the past. every GTA game I’ve ever played has been a fun single player experience. I can’t imagine R* nuking the billions they’ve spent developing their game and the goodwill they’ve gathered in the past. Are there going to be scammy bullshit things in the game? Sure. It’s literally impossible for them to raise money from investors if they don’t put it in there. But if it’s another game “only” just as good as GTA v, it will sell incredibly well and be worth the up front money.
These comments that try to make Rockstar look or sound bad never work, lol. Comparing amazing single-player games like GTA V or RDR2 to Overwatch 2 or Star Fox? What? That is like pointing to different movie directors to try and argue why a talented popular one is going to fail. It’s so goofy. They are completely different teams of game developers with a track record of delivering.
The stuff you’re missing out with GTA+ is incredibly meaningless. They are more cars and garages, who cares? You don’t need them to enjoy 99.9% of the content Online, which are missions and heists you can do with your friends right now. You don’t need the cosmetics. Same with Overwatch 2; that sequel was awesome, because the game became free for everyone to play, and right now they’re being very generous with the amount of skins they give to Free Players; you can pretty much get 2-3 legendary skins every 2 months if you play for a few hours a week, no need to grind too hard. Those who hate Blizzard for the scandals, who are still blaming the entire team for the actions of a few, they are not morally superior. Those things don’t define everyone that works there, not all the artists and developers deserved the harassment and death threats they received.
All gaming companies’ employee track records are horrible. Crunch is everywhere. There’s Bungie, Ubisoft, Microsoft, CD Project…
The fact you can’t see the massive milestone something like GTA VI is for Humanity or art, is just so disrespectful. GTA 6 will be the closest thing we have to a real-life sim, not just because of the graphics, but the overall system of making a massive city feel alive and that good in a screen, with 2026’s hardware limitations which are still significant for this genre of game. So many tried, like Watch Dogs or Cyberpunk, but they failed. As a software engineer, Rockstar Games are still some of the best technical achievements the Gaming Industry has, regardless of how greedy they are, the content you get for 60-80$ is already insanely good.
And trust me, I hate Rockstar for introducing the MK, for GTA+, for their content being too repetitive too: drive to point A, kill bad guys, steal something, drive to point B. FarmVille-type of farming drugs or cars to sell, time-gated, just to make a few thousand in-game currency and buy a car that feels the same to drive as any other. That’s probably how most of the Online content feels in both. They feel like a Mobile game in that regard. Even then I can still see the massive value in this new game and the hype is so damn easy to understand, I am so tired of seeing these comments, bro. I once saw a kid say he was more excited for Deltarune than GTA 6. It doesn’t make you cooler, smarter or special to say something big and trendy like GTA 6 or a Christopher Nolan movie like Odyssey which is getting a lot of similar flak from people who want to sound profound. It just makes you look like a pessimist contrarian. There is valid criticism in everything, but come on, man. Come on.
Bros over here with his pepperoni nipple and opinion like we give af
You gave enough of a fuck to reply to it. Go take you reddit ass behavior and NPC one-liners back to that Jeffrey Epstein Class supporting website you belong to
You sound like a piece of shit
I was just told that nobody should give a fuck about my opinion just because I went into detail about why the hype for Rockstar Games is fair. Dude didn’t even add anything of value to the convo, just insults, like you are. And now the guy is singing about being “Jeffrey Epstein’s boss” below you. Cool friend you got there. I am so jealous
Bro talking like he doesn’t realize I’m Epstein’s boss
k
No u
Wait, do ppl really believe I’m
That would be funny
I don’t know who that is though
They are playing me
It’s not good enough to be true
I am just a dummy!!!
I could never do what you due
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.
Your telling me it’s 600 gigs…
A disc? In this economy?
A map? That sounds like DLC.
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.
deleted by creator
“Security measure to not leak the game”
Entirely BS. How has the entire games industry existed before then?
Can we also talk about how they’re locking full on content behind the ultimate edition? Not just some cosmetics, but the actual shops you’d go to in game to customize your character. In a single player game. That’s fucked.
It’s enough that I’m not getting the game. I can wait for PC and we’ll see if they release it as a full game rather tham carve it up. This is just an excuse not to have a $100 base price so they avoid that backlash while they effectively have it for the full game.
Remember when you bought a game and it was yours?
Remember when you unlocked things in game through completion and achievement?
Remember when you bought a game you got the whole game, not 70% and access to a storefront?
Fuck AAA gaming man. I feel sorry for the devs and artists who work so hard on a game only for executives to slice it up and smear the goodwill the game had by attempting to be predatory and parasitic capitalists.
Fuck the billionaires.
I’m just gonna wait for epic to give it away. Didn’t pay for 5, don’t intend on paying for 6.
same fam, see you in 2032
I feel like devs and artists should know about this already since this shit keeps happening and that they’re enabling this behaviour. Please correct me if you think Im saying some dumbass shit but I think at this point I can’t excuse them.
They’re people who followed their passions, learned the skills, and were able to join those companies and have secured an income, which we have tied to our very survival.
Can we blame them for being used by corporations when the alternative could be homelessness and societal outcast? Especially in this current fascist regime with less and less social protections? Even more so if they have families to provide for.
I’m sure they’re aware. But we’ve yet to achieve class consciousness. They’re made to believe they have no choice. Corporations union bust and threaten that you’re replaceable and that there are no jobs.
Devs aren’t the enemy. They’re working class just like us. Executives psychologically, financially, and physically manipulate and abuse us. They’re the enemy we need to focus on.
So, unionize?
Also, is it hard for someone who managed to get hired by a AAA company to get hired someone else? You’d think they’d be more valued.
Then you get fired cause they union bust. A union almost formed and then they laid off a ton of people so they wouldn’t reach the threshold.
Damn, is there any option left that doesnt end in violence?
You can’t correct an opinion, own it or shut up
Is it wrong to want to know better?
Knowing is facts, not opinions
I can know about other’s opinions, people believing differently existing is a fact.
The game costs $100, the “lite” bullshit is just a poor deception.
But the code leads to a download, right? Which is you owning it, just like all other digital media you’ve downloaded.
Until you can’t download it anymore.
The “retro” gaming market is going to absolutely suck in 30 years because you don’t “own” anything.
“Ownership” should not imply the DRM you purchased it through can revoke said “ownership” whenever it becomes convenient. If you still have to ask permission to play something you “own”, I don’t call that ownership.
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.
The decline:
1: Games come in physical cartridges/discs in boxes in a store, included will be a user manual and sometimes special booklets with world maps or posters. Special editions come in fancy or metal cases, special colour variants, figurines and other trinkets. Expansion packs are released that add between 80-150% the amount of content as the origional game.2: Special editions start coming with lower quality physical items and less often. Expansion packs start getting replaced by DLC packs, which are usually good value for money and add meaningful content to the game.
3: Games start shipping with less content and less testing as DLC’s become more about bug fixes and adding content origionally planned as main release content.
4: Special editions consist basically just of a couple unique character skins or weapons whith no real lasting perks. DLC starts becoming rediculously expensive and underwhelming as shitty value for money.
Loot boxes and similar mechanics start preying on gamers with the same underwhelming content.5: Games can be bought physically, but you install on a console/PC and it gets locked to your account, no sharing the disc with friends.
6: Multiplayer is moved to almost exclusively online only with no couch co-op for the vast majority of games. Online multiplayer only accessible with platform exclusive access subscription.
7: Games are sold as digital download only.
8: Games are downloaded but only sold as a subscription access.
9: Games are subscription only, but the game runs on their server and you just get the display stream feed + all inputs go back to the server to control the game.
10: You dont play games, you watch AI models play against each other whilst wearing VR headset, you dont enjoy it much but at least with the VR headset on you cant see the destruction outside your bunker since the climate change food riots.
Hope is on the horizon, apparently an indie dev is releasing a new version of tetris you will be able to play by actually pressing buttons yourself, 2035 is starting to look better after all.Retailers should know that selling this is a poison pill. If no disc launches become the norm, then retailers will no longer serve a purpose in the industry.
They’ve been trying to kill the second hand market for decades and this release is the biggest threat to it yet.
Yep. Nevermind the fact that the second hand market is fantastic advertising for the companies and the quality of their games, and a surefire way to manufacture future customers.
I cant tell you how many brand new games I bought over the years, because I picked up a previous release used.
Hell, Final Fantasy is a fine example… I got FF4 used from a garage sale… which lead to me buying 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15… some of those games multiple times for new platforms.
One used game, translated into additional sales of almost every game that followed.
They don’t want the secondhand market. There’s no tangible profit there. They don’t want you to buy games. There’s tangible profit there only once. They want you to subscribe. They want recurring payments whether you use it or not. They want you to feel obliged to play certain games because you’re already automatically sending the money. They do not give a shit if you finish a title. Eyes on the screen in their ecosystem is all they want. It doesn’t matter if it’s the console manufacturer or the game developer. GTA(#) has been hyped for decades, they don’t need a physical GTAV to float around to convince a handful of people to buy GTAVI. GTA is not in the same market as FF
Hence GTA Online, where whales can keep spending hundreds of dollars for shark cards because they cant hope to play the game enough to stay infront of FOMO with all the new cars and other shit they constantly release.
they should want the secondhand market for exactly the reasons @A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world described. a secondhand sale leading to future sales leads to subscriptions. the secondhand market isn’t cutting into their profits, it’s free advertising.
Unfortunately when businesses base success per quarter or by number of sales in the first week of release that means very little to them
free advertising that they’ve been paid to make, cause that second hand game wouldnt exist if they hadnt already gotten their pay from someone buying it.
Used games are basically the companies getting paid, to advertise their games to others, who then… as long as they are a half decent company, would more than likely pick up more customers in the future than they would have had otherwise.
I still can’t find Ultra HD discs in the shops either - it’s easier to find low res DVDs in 2026 than 4k discs even though most TVs sold now are 4k.
I have become convinced that Sony are deliberately sabotaging their own format because Sony Pictures ran the numbers and concluded they’d make more money if everyone had to stream.
A perpetual subscription is obviously a more stable source of income for corporations than a one-time purchase of a software package.
Adobe figured that out more than a decade ago. I’m surprised that it has taken the legacy media companies this long to hop on that particular bandwagon.
Barnes and Noble is the only reliable place left for ultra discs
I don’t understand why ive been seeing so many people say this, that ship sailed long ago. Not only did the switch have games with download only codes, (not to mention that with switch 2 they have the “Game Key Card”), but PC games did this for years (maybe still do?) before moving away from physical discs entirely.
The solution is blockchain tokenization that is transferable to a new owner for the secondary market.
Will they ever implement something like that? Of course not.
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.
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
Shot in the dark: is this about getting the white stallion in red dead redemption?
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.
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.
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.
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.
No, but the packaging is a refrigerator box.
the keycode is laser-etched onto one of the nails holding it together.
That looks like a major award!
Fragile…it’s italian!
It is a reflection though. A box with a piece of paper in it is a direct reflection of fucking idiocy.
[for consoles] if it doesn’t have a disc, i won’t pay more than $5 for it.
unless it’s stardew. then i’ll buy it for every system.
I have only bought stardew valley once, because I only game on PC, but I definitely would buy it for multiple systems if I used them; it’s already such good value that I feel like I’m stealing. I do love a passion project.
I wonder if ConcernedApe has a proper desk yet
we only have three copies. we’d have four but my wife says she’d get distracted at work if we got the android one. two for PC (different steam accounts so we can play together in different rooms) and one on playstation (so we can splitscreen).
like, i feel weird buying this many copies but we’re still below $60 total and it’s my wife’s favorite game so i don’t really mind.
He does!
Buying only a download code is essentially a gift card.
Good. Boycott until a physical copy is sold at a lower price. Stop pre-ordering incomplete games and vote with your wallet.
The lack of a disc version is ridiculous.
But not as ridiculous as the lack of online multiplayer at launch. I’m ancient enough to remember the GTA V release. The pre-release trailer specifically said, “Complete heists with your friends!” or something very close to that. Then the game launched and you couldnt do anything with your friends. Once online was finally added, it was broken for a month or two. And heists weren’t added for 2 years.
Maybe I’ll buy GTA VI in 2 years, because $80 for a single-player-only game without a disc is 100% not happening for me.
Also, for extra GTA-doomer content, I still expect them to put online mode’s in-game currency on their own blockchain to prevent exploits, better enabling their bullshit monetization schemes.
Also, for extra GTA-doomer content, I still expect them to put online mode’s in-game currency on their own blockchain to prevent exploits, better enabling their bullshit monetization schemes.
Why would they do this? Do you think they’d want people to sell their in-game currency to other people without them being able to take a cut? How would putting it on a block chain prevent exploits?
Blockchain just means every transaction is recorded forever (simplifying a little bit but not too much). You can have a blockchain currency without any mechanism to exchange / trade / transfer it.
There are also even regular cryptocurrencies that can only be traded within a ‘walled garden’ where the house always gets a cut. But I don’t think they’d allow P2P sales, ever, and going by GTA V, probably won’t allow P2P cash transfer at all either.
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.
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.
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.
