However, The Hollywood Reporter notes that this isn’t the case, as a “source with knowledge of the plans” claims there won’t be GTA 6 discs at launch or in the months after. They seemingly noted what others pointed out – that the “physical copy” referred to by support is the same version that doesn’t include a disc in the box.

The “following months” part apparently isn’t referring to the period after launch but rather since Wednesday’s announcement. None of this sounds unreasonable, mind you.

But it’s worth noting the lack of official response from Rockstar. That doesn’t necessarily mean plans couldn’t change at some point, but for now, the current offerings are all you get. It’s also yet to respond to backlash against the Ultimate Edition, which includes five exclusive clothing, tattoo, hair stylist, and vehicle shops. So it goes.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 out on November 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5, we’re looking forward to the next big trailer or gameplay reveal. Perhaps we’ll learn more about the more realistic NPCs, dynamic weather or how social media works.

In a new video, he claims to have confirmed the new gameplay loop. More importantly, it will “almost certainly” be revealed at Halo Fest 2026, which runs from December 12th to 13th. Ekur reportedly has a live service model, and Halo Studios has seemingly been working on it since 2023, which is apparently longer than Campaign Evolved after Certain Affinity crafted the initial prototype.

But will it be a standalone title or packaged with the next mainline Halo? This is still reportedly unknown, probably because we’ve heard very little about the unofficial Halo 7 in general, aside from the fact it’s using Unreal Engine 5, like all other current projects.

Time will tell, and plans could change – after all, look at all the twists and turns that Tatanka went through. In the meantime, Halo: Campaign Evolved launches on July 28th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Recent gameplay has looked good, but you shouldn’t expect anything in terms of new content, even for something like Theater Mode.

But while GTA 6 is fulfilling its role as a savior of sorts for console sales, which saw their worst-ever May in US history, it seems supply can’t keep up with demand. Besides a “major games retailer” warning The Game Business about a lack of consoles, a “senior games buyer” who wasn’t authorized to speak by their employer said, “We’ve been informed that because of the ongoing issues around hardware component availability, we won’t be getting the units we want ahead of GTA. Demand will likely outstrip supply during the year-end period.”

Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar may very well be laughing all the way to the bank (as they should with how high the budget allegedly is), Grand Theft Auto 6 won’t immediately expand the console user market as many might have hoped. And with Xbox Series X/S consoles seeing price hikes, with memory and storage prices expected to increase further by late 2027, there’s unlikely to be any improvement until 2028.

Granted, we won’t know how that will affect the game’s sales in that interim. For the time being, the hype is immaculate and will only pick up in the next few months ahead of its November 19th release. Head here for all the latest details.

Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson claims to have heard that 15 different Ubisoft studios worked on the title. Ubisoft Singapore is leading development (obviously), but Barcelona, Belgrade, Bordeaux, Bucharest, Chengdu, Da Nang, India, Montpellier, Philippines, Kyiv, Montreal, Shanghai, Sofia and Quebec are also apparently involved.

All in all, it’s the same number of studios that worked on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and pretty much par for the course when it comes to major Ubisoft titles. However, it’s worth noting that recent restructuring has resulted in Belgrade shutting down and Barcelona facing layoffs.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced launches on July 9th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, having recently gone gold. Check out our feature for all the latest details or head here to listen to Woodkid’s newest theme for the remake. You can also check out our thoughts on the naval combat, which has seen some major revamps and improvements over the original.

Before succeeding previous CEO Pete Parsons, Truman has worn many hats on Destiny 2, serving as a development lead and a gameplay experience director before becoming chief development officer. However, his experience with the company stretches even further back as he worked on Halo: Reach and then the original Destiny.

Truman became studio head in August 2025, which means he spent less than a year in the role. With PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst noting that “most” of the Destiny team facing layoffs, it’s probably a given that someone with such a huge background in the series would leave.

The question now is who will step into the role, and whether PlayStation will be much more heavily involved. Hulst already hinted at Marathon being a larger focus, though that team is apparently incubating other exciting projects. At this point, there isn’t much else to do but wait for more details.

As for Marathon, its next big update arrives on July 21st, adding a PvE version of Cryo Archive called Vault Breaker. The team also announced that Season 3 would go live on September 22nd and add a new Runner Shell and overhaul the Perimeter map with new encounters and whatnot.

It is worth noting that whether there are real plans to release a physical version of Grand Theft Auto 6 with an included disc or whether this was simply an auto-generated email response is currently unknown.

In the meantime, a report by Polish outlet PPE.pl has indicated that there are indeed plans to release GTA 6 on disc. According to the report, “GTA 6 is to be sold with a code in the box only around the release, and then we will receive a normal boxed version of the game – with a disc on which we will find data allowing us to run GTA 6 without assigning a key/access to our account on PlayStation or Xbox.” The report went on to note that the disc is expected to be released in December 2026.

The decision to make the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6 only include a redeemable code rather than a disc has been an unpopular one. While gamers who enjoy collecting discs have been vocal about their frustrations, even people who are more interested in the conservation of video games have criticized Rockstar Games for this.

Rumors about the physical version of Grand Theft Auto 6 not including a disc first started going around in January. At the time, a leaker had said that there was “conflicting information” about the release and that it “won’t happen until early 2027.”

When asked about these rumors during an earnings call Q&A in February, CEO of parent company Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, said, “That’s not the plan.”

As for whether this move will have any tangible impact on the sales of Grand Theft Auto 6, Circana’s Mat Piscatella – an industry analyst – doesn’t seem to think so. He noted that there are already many gamers out there with a PS5 Digital Edition or an Xbox Series S – consoles that lack disc drives. Along with this, he said that the lack of a disc in the physical release also benefits retailers, since a redeemable code essentially kills off the potential for a second-hand market for the title.

“Anyways, devil’s advocate here, but given the % of PS5/XBS consoles out there without a disc drive, one could argue code in box may provide a better opportunity for retailers, particularly those that don’t sell used,” he wrote. “In any case, can’t say this changes anything regarding total sales expectations.”

Grand Theft Auto 6 is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Pre-orders for the game are now live, with a standard edition priced at $80 and an Ultimate Edition priced at $100. For more on how this pricing might impact the games industry, check out what analysts have to say.

It is worth noting that, while fans can pick up physical boxes of Grand Theft Auto 6 for their desired platforms, these boxes will only include a code to redeem and download the title digitally. No disc is going to be included. The decision has largely been seen as an unpopular one, since fans of Rockstar’s games have typically enjoyed the fact that the boxes came with the games’ discs, as well as some physical goodies, like a map of the game’s world.

The supposed December launch is expected to include a disc in the box.

Interestingly, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick had vehemently denied the idea of delaying a physical release for Grand Theft Auto 6 in order to prevent leaks. When asked about this during an earnings call Q&A in February, Zelnick said, “That’s not the plan.” He was asked this question due to rumors of the time, once more courtesy of PPE.pl, reporting that the company was avoiding a physical release at launch.

At the time, the report had said that there was “conflicting information” about when the physical edition of Grand Theft Auto 6 was going to be available. They believed that it “won’t happen until early 2027.”

Rockstar Games has kicked off pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6. The base edition of the title is priced at $80, and an Ultimate Edition, which comes with a host of extra in-game goodies, is priced at $100.

The wording surrounding the extra content from the Ultimate edition has led some to believe that Grand Theft Auto 6 might take a page out of Red Dead Redemption 2’s book and structure its main campaign into distinct chapters. This would be a major change for the franchise since the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001, since the titles have largely seen missions flow into each other without any clear break that could mark the beginning or end of chapters.

However, some titles in the franchise, like San Andreas, have moments that could be considered clean chapter breaks, like when protagonist CJ leaves Los Santos for the first time, or when he finally drives to San Fierro, which kicks off its own miniature story arc.

Red Dead Redemption 2, on the other hand, made heavy use of its chapter-based structure, with the entire Van Der Linde gang needing to reposition its camp in its attempts to escape from the authorities. Through this, the title was also able to portray the passage of time, opening up new story missions as well as side content, leaving large marks on the game’s map as a result.

Among the employees to have confirmed that they have been laid off are game writer and narrative designer Bijan Stephen, principal 3D environment artist Paulette Richardson, senior character concept artist Shelby Dela Cruz, and dialogue designer Sean Miller.

“After nearly six wonderful years at Compulsion Games, significant professional growth, and having shipped one of my most creatively satisfying titles in my career, I am now #OpenToWork,” wrote Miller. Richardson said, “After five wonderful years at Compulsion, I am now #OpenToWork.”

Recent reports had indicated that, while many Xbox studios are seemingly going to be affected, Compulsion Games was going to be the first to face layoffs.

While many people from across the industry have spoken about these impending layoffs and studio closures, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier went as far as to say that Microsoft is punishing its employees for following its own previous orders.

“A lot of these studios made plenty of their own mistakes, but in a lot of ways they’re being punished today for following orders,” Schreier said in a video. “For listening to what they were told a few years ago. And that is just a shame, and what is going to happen is pretty brutal. The word bloodbath has been thrown around among people I talk to who know about what’s going to happen. It’s going to be bad.”

“And one of the reasons Xbox studios have struggled to make great games over the past decade is this uncertainty,” he concluded. “It’s really hard to make great art when working under the fear of layoffs and turbulence and cancellations and shutdowns.”

Former PlayStation Studios boss Shawn Layden offered his own opinions on the matter, noting that Xbox’s recent moves have indicated that the company has a “basic misunderstanding” of how the gaming industry works.

“At the risk of sounding like a ‘hater’ (which, I’m really not), the moves evince a basic misunderstanding of how the interactive entertainment world moves. [If you know, you know], which also means if you don’t, you don’t,” wrote Layden. His statement came in response to a LinkedIn post by industry consultant Tadhg Kelly, who had pointed out that many of Xbox’s recent moves have seemed quite contradictory. Among these has been the decision to rebrand back to its previous brand, and an insistence that, despite the potential high price tag of Project Helix, “a claim that hardware can’t be expensive to win.”

In the meantime, Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory have reportedly begun negotiations with Xbox to try to go independent rather than suffer from studio closures. If these negotiations succeed, however, the studios will still likely have to undergo some form of layoffs.

That would be God of War Laufey, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. In a new video discussing why GTA 6 has so many games scared, he mentioned that some releases bound for September could inevitably slip, resulting in a crowded February/March 2027.

However, he added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that gets announced for February or March pretty soon. “

If you’ll recall, neither PlayStation nor Santa Monica Studio revealed a release date or window, even as it dropped nearly 24 minutes of incredible gameplay during the last State of Play. However, rumors have been rife about a launch in the first half of 2027.

This is the first real report of an actual month (or two). It also means we could hear a lot more about the game later this year. A release date reveal at The Game Awards would certainly be appropriate, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Sony announced it beforehand. Then it could host a dedicated State of Play for it in February 2027.

Time will tell, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out our thoughts on the story and what we think could happen.

This wouldn’t be the first time Project Ekur has changed directions. According to the leaker, it was originally being developed as a battle royale game under the codename Tatanka. This got cancelled when Halo Studios decided to transition its development efforts to Unreal Engine 5. At the time, this transition involved giving Certain Affinity the task of creating prototypes to see whether the assets made for the Slipspace and Blam engines used for Halo Infinite could be imported over into Unreal Engine 5, and to see whether the resulting game could maintain the “feel” of Halo.

Citing sources, Rebs Gaming claims that these goals were originally accomplished in June 2023, with prototypes of Project Ekur being developed that involved AI opponents. This led to the exploration of a Halo-based extraction shooter. Among the concepts explored was the idea of players teaming up with AI squad members to explore a large map and scavenge for resources, often taking on other teams of players and their AI squads. While there were still some elements of the extraction shooter genre in this concept, the studio was reportedly going for something more in line with Halo 5: Guardians’ Warzone game mode.

While Halo Studios hasn’t officially confirmed the development of Project Ekur so far, such a game being made wouldn’t be too surprising, since the next big entry in the franchise is going to be the campaign and co-op-only title Halo: Campaign Evolved. A remake of the original Halo, the game will not feature any competitive game modes. Rather, Halo Studios has decided to focus strictly on single-player and co-op content. To that end, an accompanying game that focuses purely on PvP could be seen as a smart idea, since the Halo franchise as a whole is also beloved for its multiplayer.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on July 28th. This will mark the first time that a Halo game is playable on a PlayStation console since the franchise’s inception all the way back in 2001.

Executive producer Damon Conn and creative director Max Szlagor have previously spoken about how Halo Studios wants to honor the entire franchise and its fans, while also bringing it to a new generation of gamers.

“We hope to bring along the series veterans who have been with us for the past 25 years and have them play with an entirely new generation,” said Conn. “There are people who have never been exposed to Halo. Maybe they’ve always been on Sony products, switched consoles at a certain point, or just missed it at the time. We want to bring players back together.”

While you wait for Halo: Campaign Evolved, check out the 10 major differences between it and the original Halo: Combat Evolved.