A claim went around this week that the physical edition of Grand Theft Auto VI in Japan contains a download code that expires 170 days after release. Buy the box, leave it on a shelf for six months, and supposedly you own nothing. This isn't true, and the person who made the original post clarified it. However, the panic behind the potential expiration of the digital only release of the next Grand Theft Auto is, in a way, justified.
Before we delve into that, let's talk about Japan first. In Japan, physical game releases commonly carry disclaimers about expiring digital codes. It's the result of regional rules around limited time digital offers. Publishers routinely print notices stating that certain codes are only valid for a set window, often somewhere in the range of a few months from release. What those notices almost always cover is the extra content.
Rockstar Games has indicated that the boxed version contains a single code for the full game, so it shouldn't expire, even in Japan, and this is the part that created this entire situation.
People aren't gullible. They aren't worrying for the sake of it. The reasoning behind the concern is based on the premise Rockstar and Sony Interactive Entertainment created by killing physical discs.
Think about how this question would have gone five years ago. Someone claims a disc expires after 170 days, and everyone laughs, because a disc is a disc. It has no terms and conditions. It does not need a server, a redemption window or a valid account. The reason this claim got traction is that the industry has spent the past month removing exactly the thing that made it obviously absurd.
With that said, there's a part about GTA 6 that actually will expire. The Vintage Vice City Pack is tied to a purchase window that closes on November 20, which is a genuine, confirmed, worldwide deadline on bonus content. There is a second one worth knowing about too. The free month of GTA+ bundled with digital purchases behaves like most subscription trials, which means it can quietly roll into a paid subscription if you forget about it.
It's interesting that the discless discourse has led to this. You see, years ago, when you bought a game on a disc, ownership was simple. You had the object. Nobody had to explain redemption windows or account regions or what happens if the servers go away. Now a boxed copy of the biggest game of the year is a slip of paper with terms attached, and those terms differ by region, by edition and by which bonus you are talking about. It is the natural result of an industry moving away from physical media entirely, and it is why a rumour like this seems to believable and spreads so easily.
Unfortunately, the original claim has since reached a large audience. The correction probably won't reach half of that. Expect to see people spending the next several months believing their Japanese copy of GTA VI has a shelf life (and it might still have).
For now, if you are buying the boxed version of GTA 6 anywhere, redeem the code when you get it rather than leaving it in a drawer, keep it with you until you have confirmed the game is on your account, and read whatever is actually printed on the packaging rather than what someone said was printed on it.
None of that is because the code expires. It is because a code is a fragile thing to own compared to a disc, and treating it carefully costs you nothing.
