GTA 6 Is Going To Become Unplayable For All Of Us Eventually

Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be big no matter what. It’s a massive franchise, and no matter how many missteps it might make leading up to launch, the initial groundswell of support will be huge.

That said, we’re starting to see some cracks. Take-Two made a bombshell announcement that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be a digital-only game, and any discs you buy will simply serve as authentication for the digital edition. As you might imagine, a lot of people, especially hardcore GTA fans, aren’t happy.

While the game itself could be an extraordinary take on the open world formula, it’ll eventually become unplayable for everyone unless something changes.

GTA 6 Won’t Ever Really Be Yours

gta 6 cal hampton — *GTA 6*‘s Cal Hampton.

Shockingly, Grand Theft Auto 6 will not be available as an on-disc video game. I know that sounds weird, but any physical editions of the game you buy will essentially grant you a disc that’s a game key, and an eventual paperweight. The move has already caused some to call for boycotts, and several smaller retailers are refusing to stock the game.

While Take-Two’s decision has already ignited a lot of fires among fans, the recent news that PlayStation will discontinue disc production in 2028 is incredibly timely. It’s very clear that some big publishers are setting up for an all-digital future, where users have no ownership over select games, and cannot resell them.

In a situation where a game is completely dead because of an entire store closure (generally, it takes two full generations for that to happen, but it’s going to be coming up for the PlayStation 3 soon), you can’t access the game at all.

In that sense, it never belonged to you. It’s been said many times since the dawn of digital, but you’re renting a license from a publisher who is granting it to you on their whim. Many companies have revoked those digital licenses without refunds in the past, which is the absolute worst case.

Once again, Sony is coming up in the news for this particular case for the following fiasco: “From September 1, 2026, due to our content licensing agreements, you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from Studio Canal, and it will be removed from your video library.”

That’s it, from that date onward, hundreds of movies will be deleted, and you can’t even access the content you bought. From another angle, game preservationists are in a bind, as it can be exceedingly difficult to preserve games that are fully operated behind the scenes by a publisher.

Digital Ownership Is Not True Ownership

The main thing that makes this situation unique is that Grand Theft Auto 6 is not inherently a live-service game that relies on servers to be played. If you put your disc for any older mainline GTA game in your system, including GTA 5, you can play the story mode. It’s as simple as that.

That’s how games used to work! While there are some exceptions (such as select GTA games not being fully on the cartridge and requiring a download on Switch), many fans see the GTA games as ostensibly single-player. In the grand context of this decades-old series, GTA Online is a newer feature.

For all those loyal fans, the lack of a physical edition of GTA 6 is seen as a betrayal. If Take-Two doesn’t reverse its decision at some point, even for a limited-time special edition on-the-disc drop in the future, it would be a shame to see it eventually go to waste in a digital landfill.