You’ll never believe this, but Grand Theft Auto 6 is in the news again. One of the most anticipated games of all time, a mega-blockbuster with a budget reportedly in the billions, and what could be the thing that saves an industry in terms of how much money it’s going to generate. Shocking, I know. But what’s especially incredible is the amount of unhappy feedback.
The $80 price point is a stickler – I mean, many of us expected that. Some even suspected a $100 price, though Rockstar took the roundabout approach of locking five stores behind the same for the full-fledged experience. Triple-A gaming strikes again: unimaginable levels of greed, so on and so forth. But what’s truly been curious is the backlash against the lack of a disc with the physical version.
Is it priced any differently from the digital version? No. Is it simply a box with a code in it? Yes. Is Rockstar doing this to avoid leaks from retailers who break street date? At that point, we’re several steps removed from conspiracy theories about the PC version being ready and waiting to go, but facing a delay to ensure it doesn’t suffer a Steam leak like so many other high-profile games over the past year.
Yet it’s the lack of a physical disc that has people worked up. There’s a rumor that a proper physical release could happen in December. Then a response from Rockstar customer support claimed it was months away. And before any hope could materialize, The Hollywood Reporter, of all publications, cited a source claiming there won’t be a physical disc at launch or in the months after, and that the support message is valid but interpreted the wrong way. All in the span of a few days, mind you.
Of course, it’s not unreasonable to ask questions like, “Why are Rockstar and Take-Two demanding such a high price and not committing to providing a disc?” Whether you’re a collector, someone who believes in preservation or someone who doesn’t want to download the entire game for another playthrough somewhere down the line (even if you still have to deal with tens of gigs of updates), it’s not the loftiest expectation in the world.
But such is the hoopla around all this that other developers, like Insomniac Games with Marvel’s Wolverine, are getting caught in the crossfire. Neither releasing on the same date, let alone in the same month, but still wanting to reassure players – yes, it has a disc in the box. And as absurd as it seems, I wouldn’t be surprised if more developers issue the same statements, either to reassure retailers who won’t stock Grand Theft Auto 6 due to the lack of a disc or their players to avoid any kind of negative press. Or really any backlash, even if their sales skew massively towards digital, because the coming release period is so crucial and only a few will rise to the top.
The funny thing in all this isn’t people debating whether this is the new normal or whether publishers should be allowed to get away scot-free, especially in an age where digital ownership is a big deal, and a large chunk of gaming relies on an internet connection. It’s actually the shock at how much of the “new normal” this has really become.
You could go, “What’s next? Collector’s Editions with Steelbooks and no discs?” Yeah, PlayStation and Santa Monica Studio already beat you to that particular point of anger in 2022 with Ragnarok. The Collector’s edition didn’t have a physical disc.
Think times have changed? Feast your eyes on the Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Collector’s Edition with its 15-inch Magellan Man statue, art cards, a specially crafted box and even a Dollman figurine. Yet, no physical disc. That will be $230, but look on the bright side – at least it has a letter from Hideo Kojima himself.
You could argue that the lack of a physical disc is to keep costs down and that these are simply items for the more ardent collectors, but we come back once again to the crux of the matter. At these prices, a disc seems a given with how much money you’re putting down. Then again, it could just be a means for publishers – in this case, Sony – to have you spend extra for the actual game. Either way, the result is the same.
And while both of these editions received, at best, a moderate reaction given their price, Grand Theft Auto 6 has blown the entire discussion wide open. Now, that may not seem very fair. Then again, neither of those games is GTA 6. Just as that name entails a certain level of quality and seemingly allows for justifying $80 when other triple-A publishers simply wouldn’t dare, so too does it result in massive expectations in every single way. That includes something as seemingly innocuous as locking off a few stores out of dozens or providing a disc instead of a download code.
Yet suddenly, we’re in an age where the resale market is dead, physical retailers get the short end of the stick, and gamers face persecution…when these have all been ongoing issues for a while. Those who have purchased physical editions for years have had to go beyond simply asking whether there’s a disc. They’ve also had to look at a game’s playability without relying on downloadable updates. I still remember the controversy around Monster Hunter Rise in 2021, which shipped without a proper ending and final boss. Those got added a month later in an update, but that decision alone meant that some players never bothered with the physical edition, insane as it sounds.
Again, such is the hype and attention around Grand Theft Auto 6 that it could bring much wider attention to such issues. That it could prompt questions about whether gamers are actually getting a raw deal with a physical edition or simply a pretty box to stare at. Some companies, like PlayStation, may be looked at as “consumer-friendly” for doing the bare minimum, even though they’re very much part of the problem.
All the attention is ultimately a good thing, though, because it raises these issues higher than before, even if it’s sometimes through the same repetitive memes. The problem is all this will be drowned out over time.
That’s not just because this is the first step in the marketing cycle and that trailer 3 hype will effectively override any lingering concerns. Or that the proper gameplay showcase will have millions, including us, dissecting every bit for new details. It all goes back to the same reason why digital sales have become so dominant – most players don’t care about physical copies. So while there’s some justification for demanding a disc, even for old time’s sake, Rockstar and Take-Two will see the pre-order numbers and the tens of millions lining up on launch day, and they will simply continue as is, the entire “ordeal” will become an unrecognizable bump in the road towards billions in revenue.
Welcome to the new normal. You’ve been here for years.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
