Grand Theft Auto VI Disc Version Reportedly to Launch in December - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 25 June 2026 / 2,398 Views
Grand Theft Auto VI will reportedly be getting a physical edition with a disc in December, according to insider Graczdari on Polish website PPE.pl.
This follows the announcement the physical editions of the game will come with a "download code inside the box" and be able to be used to pre-load the game starting on November 12.
Graczdari handles physical game sales in Europe did previously leak the release dates for the physical version of The Elder Scrolls VI: Oblivion Remastered, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Switch 2 port, and the Microsoft Flight Simulator PS5 port.
The insider claims the "download code inside the box" is only for the initial run and that the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions will get physical versions that contain a disc sometime in December.
"The release with the code will be one shot, and then the option for a disc will release," said Graczdari.
Grand Theft Auto VI will launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19. Pre-orders will open on June 25.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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The fact that the biggest game series gets away with all these cheapskate strategies to maximize their already enourmous profits is absolutely ludicrous. Games with 100 smaller budget can release physically simultaneously on consoles and PC, personally can't defend that when we reach this level of scope.
What’s “cheapskate” about this? Sounds to me like Rockstar is delaying the physical launch to avoid having a leak pre-release (which TBF it’s not a question of if there would be a leak, but when).
You maximize profits on digital sales, leaks are realistically much more problematic for storybased games.
GTA is a story based game.
The reality is they've misled consumers with a pretend physical release at launch in order to not miss out on money. Millions will walk into a store and buy a box thinking it comes with a disc. They could otherwise just say it's a digital only launch and provide stores with download codes/cards like normal releases.
The fact that there has to be speculation on whether there will be a disc release is part of their efforts to front load as many digital purchases as possible, minimise their costs there and encourage double dips, as opposed to just being transparent and letting consumers pre-order a physical release that will arrive later. There is absolutely nothing stopping them from having a real physical pre-order available with a December delivery date noted and letting consumers decide for themselves.
"cheapskate strategies to maximize their already enourmous profitss" is the embodiment of their attitude.
The bulk of day one sales being digital is massive for profits, they'll save a ton in production of the physical disc later on (and if it sells well enough, it might justify to not do physical versions at all in the future). We all then pay the price of this kind of monopolistic distribution.
Exactly. This and Otter are on point.
Yes. As someone mentioned yesterday, GTA 6 could be given away for free and they would still make hundreds of billions of dollars due to their online mode. So the fact that they aren't launching with a disc, the fact that they are micro-transactioning the story, and the fact that they are launching ten and thirty dollars ABOVE standard retail is... well... kind of cringe.
99% of games are sold digitally
not sure cheapskate is proper, i cant even imagine the amount of money invested in this game
Then whats the point of the phyiscal case with key? Might aswell wait for the actual disk version.
Retailers probably wouldn’t be too happy to miss out on the launch of GTA VI. That and they can help market the game during the busy holiday season.
People are eager to get their hands on the game, and many don't want to wait a few more weeks. If you can wait and aren't too eager about the digital version (which the physical case with a code essentially is), I don't see why you shouldn't wait.
As for why Rockstar is doing this, one advantage is probably that it's much harder for the game to leak in any interesting way before the release date. There will also be a very large amount of sold copies that can't be sold again, although naturally this effect is diminished by the disc version - still, there'll be some effect anyway.
It’s FOMO. Most people can’t wait.
im waiting till December
Well if I already have to wait a month for the physical release, I might as well wait a few more months and buy it cheaper.
Just wait for first wave of spoilers, everybody emotions during launch and this is possible to do that.
I doubt it will happen.
Imagine if this game doesn't look good at ,60 fps . Would you still purchase?
No disc no purchase. I thought only the ultimate edition had no disc, as ive seen this happen before, to compensate the added goodies in the box. But for no physical at all is just crazy.
This is clearly just an effort to kill the used market. This is not some niche indie title. This is THE biggest game series ever. There is no reason why it shouldn't launch with physical. Why even manufacture boxes at that point. Seems wasteful.
all about the share holders!
