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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, I get, I’ll wait to buy gta6 on discount instead
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
[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
He does!
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.
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.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.
Buying only a download code is essentially a gift card.
It’s interesting to watch the cycle of bullshit that happens around every hyped game.
Years up to the release, people are full of wild speculation, impossible expectations, and excitement.
Months up to the release, suddenly every piece of news is blown massively out of proportion. People are now extremely overreacting to every minor piece of news like it’s going to end this game.
The internet is so boring when it comes to video games. Reviews have become useless because nothing is ever good enough. Online discourse is worthless because people are always focused on the weird parts of a game or it’s release.
Its such a weird thing to watch from a PC gamer perspective. The game won’t release on PC for another year or longer after consoles. I’m really not feeling like I’m missing out or anything, if anything it’s like I’m standing back and watching a potential train wreck from afar.
Rockstar has been hyping this game up like it’s the next coming of Christ and there’s just no way it lives up to that much hype. People complaining about the lack of physical media, or the confusion surrounding paid DLC. I’ll just sit back and watch what happens. If it releases flawlessly with zero issues, then I’ll look forward to the PC release. If it crashes and burns, well they have a year to fix it and to convince me it’s worth it.
Exactly what I am doing as well.
I don’t think this is an overreaction. As a PC gamer, this completely ruins my plans for playing the game. I was planning to buy a used console and the physical edition of the game, so I could resell both when the game came out on PC. This is another entry into “you will own nothing and be happy.”
i’m fortunate to have some friends who are close enough we trust each other to lend consoles. we tend to swap the nintendo/playstation for about a month a year so we can catch up on whatever we missed the most (and we’ve bought each other games just so we can play them, it’s cute)
Games like that don’t really fit on discs anymore when they are probably over 100GB. So you get a disc and put it in the console and then it downloads 150GB more content onto the console, that means the disc is just a license key anyway.
What is a bigger issue is that they want to charge $80+ for a game. I’m not going to pay that much for any game.
Games came on multiple disks back in the day. Why not now?
They do now, not just in the past. FF7 Rebirth shipped on multiple discs.
They could do that, but it would cost them more money to provide that convenience to the customer. Since they are high AF on their own hype for that release, they have no motivation to do that.
Why even? I stopped using discs when CDs were the thing. Skipped DVD and bluray completely. Don’t even had a drive for over a decade now.
So you can own your game.
You own the games you downloaded, they’re on your machine.
Are you a time traveler lost from 1993?
To what end? The reason games came on multiple disks back in the day is because Internet speeds were slow (if they were there at all.) it was way faster to load via disk, and companies couldn’t even count on users to have a stable Internet connection anyway.
That’s not true anymore. The only reason physical disks exist at all now is more out of tradition than anything practical.
I don’t know how to make you understand the value of owning your own things.
The fact that whole game isn’t on the CD isn’t some conspiracy to deprive you of ownership. Putting it all on CD isn’t going to defeat an always online requirement. It’s solving a technical problem. Long term game ownership is a problem solved through legislation or piracy.
Do you think you don’t own a digital copy of every piece of downloaded digital media?
No. You don’t. A copy that can be remotely deactivated is not something you own. If you can’t use it if the company were to go bankrupt, then you don’t own it.
What’s wrong with the disk being a license key? That’d work just fine for my plan of reselling the game and console when it comes out on PC.
When the studio stops hosting the game to download, the license key is worthless.
I suppose I should clarify that I’m not advocating for it, but it’d be better than a digital key that’ll be tied to your account forever.
Nothing wrong with that, except that it’s weird. Reselling games is not important to me though, I just keep what I get and add to the collection. Still have a physical boxed copy of Halo for Mac OS X in my attic even.
Being able to share the game with family or friends would be a plus. I can do that with my Steam library without discs too.
Two discs. You put in one, it installs half the game, you put in the other, it installs the rest of the way. Or three or even more discs if the game is THAT big.
The PS4 can handle this, a couple PS5-era games we got for PS4 came on two discs.
It’s like anything… Think about how many people ride bicycles. Now go to ANY online community where people talk about cycling; it will likely be the most insufferably pedantic assholes you can imagine.
99% of people who buy video games don’t identify as “gamers”, they don’t read gaming media, and they certainly don’t interact with gaming discussion online.
As both an industry professional (former), and a self-identified gamer, I stopped giving a shit what “core gamers” had to say 10 years ago.
or the reviews are in lines of “brings nothing new, 9/10”
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.
Good. Boycott until a physical copy is sold at a lower price. Stop pre-ordering incomplete games and vote with your wallet.
Even if the disk was in the box, it wouldnt matter.
It’d just be some basic files that an installer transfers over. You’d still have to download a bunch online and use the code in the box to activate it because theres no way they’d put the whole game on a disk.
So, while I applaud giving the finger to rockstars exploitative bullshit, this seems more performative than anything.
Ok, but you can still physically take that disk with those minimal files and trade them in for at least some credit or cash somewhere.
If it’s digital, you can’t do that at all. Hell, if you download or play the game and do not like it then it can’t even be returned for a refund on many systems. A physical disk gets you something. Something…
except no you cant, because the download keys already been used and registered and permanantly tied to an account. Making the disk worse less than nothing.
That is not how disks that don’t have data on them have worked in the past. The disk works as the game key, allowing you to install and play the game, even if there is no data on the disk.
Exactly like a Switch 2 Game Key Card.
You can still share and trade those.
yeah, the disk is essentially the
DLCDRM key for the consoleedit more coffee
Weird. I’ve been able to play many used games, including GTA in the past. Is this something new with 5 and beyond? I would think the GAME was playable, but any exclusives or anything extra from an order would not be.
I’ve lent friends PS5 games, so you tell me
Can you give an example of which games do this? I’ve never had issues with using pre-owned discs.
Battlefield… 4? did it to a limited extent - the code was required for online multiplayer, but not singleplayer.
By Battlefield 6, and enough people absolutely loathing their existence, EA took the hint and didnt repeat that model. Though BF6’s campaign is apparently online-only, so they apparently pivoted to a different insane design choice.
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
Those same stores have likely happily sold physical cases for PC games containing nothing but a Steam code.
PR posturing.
I’m not familiar with Loot Box Gaming, but VGP does not sell pc games.
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.
Are blu-ray drives even standard on gaming pcs anymore? I have no idea. They sure aren’t on laptops, you’re lucky to get an rj45 port on a laptop.
Well, GTA 6 isn’t launching on PC any time soon so that’s not particularly relevant right now.
On PC the majority of “physical” games is just a steam code in a cheap plastic box. One of the reasons no retailers are selling PC games
Haven’t had an optical drive anywhere in my home since 2012, don’t miss it. Most new PCs do not have them
I got an external one so I could access the various discs I burnt over the years. Been slowly (though not very consistently lol) ripping the data off of the older CDs and DVDs with the intent of writing some m-disc blurays. Been surprised at the lack of errors on the older discs, but the new discs should eliminate that worry. Even if they don’t last the promised 1000+ years, it’ll be a problem for future generations to deal with.
Though the quality of my former prized files is kinda shit to the point where I’m already wondering if I even really care about losing most of it. I mean I did fine without any optical drive for like a decade or more.
I had one to install windows 7 and play a few games at the time, but got rid of it last year to fit my PC into a smaller case because I hadn’t used it in about a decade.
back when star field came out,i bought(for$85)what i thought was the deluxe edition dvd disc but when it arrived all it had was a code to download the 125GB data from their store page.
