{"id":660411,"date":"2026-06-27T02:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660411\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:42:09","slug":"why-gta-6-is-launching-without-a-disc-and-what-it-says-about-gamings-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660411\/","title":{"rendered":"Why GTA 6 is launching without a disc – and what it says about gaming’s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GTA franchise is one of the biggest and most profitable entertainment properties in history.<\/p>\n

GTA V has sold nearly 230 million copies, and the launch of its successor is expected to be such a major economic event that Bank of America has weighed in on its price, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Rockstar’s announcement has prompted some independent retailers to refuse to stock the code-in-a-box version.<\/p>\n

VGP, an online retailer with a physical store in Toronto, said, external<\/a> while it had “tremendous respect” for Rockstar, it was “committed to preserving the value of physical game ownership”, so would not be offering the product.<\/p>\n

Lootbox Gaming, an independent retailer in Delaware, also declined to stock it, telling me the decision “speaks volumes about the future for AAA (big-budget) releases on physical media”. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, PNP Games, an online retailer with three stores in Winnipeg, has launched a petition, external<\/a>, calling on Take-Two to release a physical disc version. <\/p>\n

Piscatella suggested the code “may provide a better opportunity for retailers, particularly those that don’t sell used games”, given the number of PlayStation 5 and Xbox consoles without disc drives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The GTA franchise is one of the biggest and most profitable entertainment properties in history. GTA V has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-660411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}