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GTA 6 is, in effect, a digital-only release. You'll be able to buy physical boxes at retail come November, but those will only include a code to be redeemed for a digital copy of the game. For some boutique retailers that specialize in physical games, that doesn't exactly sound like a future worth supporting – which is why they've decided to drop GTA 6 pre-orders altogether.
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One of those stores is VGP, a Canadian retailer that's become prominent in the collecting scene for its regular restocks of rare physical titles and its willingness to document such minutiae as, say, specific cart revisions of Nintendo-published Switch games. It's a go-to outlet for people who still care about physical games, and it has a standing policy of not carrying "code in a box" releases. That's not changing even for a juggernaut like GTA 6.
"For nearly 40 years, VGP has been committed to supporting physical media and preserving the value of physical game ownership," the retailer says in a message on Bluesky. "As part of that commitment, our company policy is that we do not carry physical products for video game consoles that contain only a digital download code."
VGP adds that "We want to be clear that this decision is not a reflection of the game itself. We have tremendous respect for Rockstar Games and the incredible achievement that Grand Theft Auto VI represents. Should Rockstar one day release a physical edition containing a disc in the box, we would be pleased to carry and support that version for our customers."
A similar statement came from another retailer I was much less familiar with: the US-based Loot Box Gaming. "We will not be supporting the release of GTA 6," the company says in a tweet. "When we started LBG, it was out of a love for our favorite form of media, gaming, as-well as the preservation of said media. If a product can’t honor the people who pay their hard earned money to purchase it, then we have no business trying to sell it to our customers whom we value above anything else."
Analyst Mat Piscatella suspects that GTA 6 won't see any notable negative sales impact from ditching the physical release, and he's providing some interesting context on similar releases. "30 video games have sold at least 1k units of code-in-box physical copies in the US so far in 2026," Piscatella says on Bluesky, covering everything from the Switch 2 version of Split Fiction to PC editions of 007 First Light. "In total, 146 video games have featured physical code-in-box SKUs to date in the US."
The supposed death of physical media has been greatly exaggerated over the past few years – I say, clutching each new PS5 disc I buy with increasing protectiveness – but it is absolutely disappointing to see what might just be the biggest game launch of all time ditch the disc.
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