I kinda hate how I had to scroll through so much "article" before they actually named either of the stores, and even further to get to the second one.
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Care to share so the rest of us don’t have to wade through the slop?
Video Games Plus and Loot Box Gaming.
A couple of smaller retailers. Good for them, but not worth scrolling through again to copy-paste.
So I guess no, you don't care to share
Nice, but wake me when it's Gamestop or Best Buy.
If it’s a code you don’t own it. If this slides you will never own a game going forward.
Even when it's a disc you still need to download a shit ton of data. It won't just play on its own without an internet connection. They can always just decline to let you download the necessary data. You don't own it either way.
Unless it's on GOG and you can download the Offline Installer. Then you actually own it and can use the 3-2-1 data archival rule. I rip my games onto M-Disc media that is said to last 1000 years.
All games should come with a tag that explicitly says if it supports offline play, which would require no updates if you don't want to.
Exactly. They're effectively killing off the used market.
This isn't the first game to do this, this has been happening for a while. Switch had a number of games where you only got a digital download code and PC games were doing that for years before they stopped having physical releases.
Would it be better if it was on a piece of cardboard with the code behind a scratch off section?
On Wednesday, Video Games Plus, a North American chain that has been around for over 30 years, confirmed in a statement on X that, despite GTA 6 being one of the biggest launches in entertainment history, it will maintain its existing ban on selling games that don’t have a hard copy.
Meanwhile, Loot Box Gaming, another video game retailer focused on physical media, has also revealed that it won’t be selling GTA 6 at launch if it isn’t available on a disc.
a disc
Considering the size of the game, it would need at least 3 discs. Doubt they're gonna redesign every case to accommodate that.
A bluray can hold 100 GB. They could fit it on one if they only put low resolution textures on the disk and made the high res textures a download.
No, see, you include a disk but all that disk has on it is the installer for the launcher with a “download gta6” command thrown on the end.
This is nowhere near the first “doesn’t contain a disk” game and choosing gta as the one to throw a fit over feels performative. This has been a thing for over a decade.
Are these cases going to have collectables? Are manuals, maps, sound track CD's, and other swag included? If all I'm getting is a case for my shelf and a piece of paper, I would rather not get physical anything.
I mean, selling codes in a box is such a silly concept to me to begin with. I want to know it's marked up a bit to deal with the cost of keeping employees, be unable to trade it in or give it to a friend after I'm done playing it and have to wait to download it, but I'd also like to drive and wait in line to get it.
I hope bigger retailers jump on board with this too 🤞
Maybe. But if Rockstar hold firm this could be the beginning (middle?) of the end for physical retail.