The Grand Theft Auto VI physical edition comes in a case with a download code and Sony has remained silent since confirming that all PlayStation 5 discs will end in 2028, leaving Rockstar Games to face the backlash alone.
It has been over a week since Sony announced it is ending physical disc production for new PlayStation games in 2028 and the company has said almost nothing since. It doesn't even bother doing damage control. It's come to the point that Domino's is making fun of it on X twice in a single day, and that kind of silence is loud, because the backlash has been enormous, in places outpacing the attention some Grand Theft Auto VI trailers got.
Unfortunately, while Sony stays quiet, one of the biggest games ever finds itself caught in the middle of a potentially political situation that has even reached politicians in Brazil and France.
With GTA 6 physical pre-orders now live, the conversation isn't focused exclusively on its November 19 release. Instead, people are talking about how the physical copy is a case with a download code, not a disc, and why the Ultimate Edition is paywalling certain content.
However, the bigger story is that the biggest non-exclusive title that's getting exclusive treatment from Sony is arriving as a code-in-a-box right as Sony confirms that model is the entire future of the platform.
Rockstar made the discless call on its own, and it took the early heat for it, but Sony's announcement turned a Rockstar decision into an industry policy, and then Sony went silent, leaving Rockstar and its buyers to absorb the frustration.
Sure, the demand is still huge. PlayStation 5 pre-orders are crushing Xbox even though the struggling green team is denying these claims. Yet, a loud segment of fans is genuinely upset.
The "No Disc, No Buy" movement has picked up real traction, with retailers pushing back, starting petitions, and some players even refusing to pay $80 for what's essentially an empty box.
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Grand Theft Auto fans now find themselves in a bind. Most love Rockstar's work and desperately want GTA 6, but they feel trapped by a platform decision they did not ask for. Now Rockstar is taking the heat while others wait for a true physical release or the PC version instead. It's not just some lazy, blind outrage. These are real customers making a sensible decision about ownership.
Besides, Sony going radio silent after the backlash tells you everything, that the company knows physical buyers are vocal and is choosing not to care. Why should anyone assume their digital games are safe if that is the attitude?
Still though, most buyers are digital anyway, and many won't blink at a code in a box. So this will not meaningfully dent GTA 6's sales, which are on track to be historic regardless. It's just that we shouldn't dismiss the movement as pointless. This would completely miss the point. No one's trying to tank GTA 6 at all. Players just want to own the things they pay for, and Sony is so far making it impossible to do just that.
Perhaps the silence is the plan. It doesn't matter if the backlash is loud when there aren't enough players to make a dent anyway. The PS5 has already outpaced its main competitor, the Xbox Series X|S, by a huge margin. Xbox can capitalize on this entire situation. However, it can take a long time for players to reverse console loyalty. Most would rather drop console gaming entirely than jump ship, especially if Microsoft doesn't make any concrete promises about doing the exact opposite of what Sony is doing right now.
Most likely, Sony has done the math and decided that it isn't worth responding to the vocal minority, which is exactly what the ownership-worried fans fear most.
What happens next is the open question.
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There are persistent rumors of a possible true disc release down the line and Take-Two's pre-order data will eventually show whether the boycott made any measurable dent, though early signs suggest demand is shrugging it off. Fans who care about physical ownership can either buy the code-in-a-box copy, perhaps taking advantage of rewards points and retailer discounts to make it sting less financially, or wait for a possible disc or the PC version. Sitting it out on principle is a possibility, albeit a slim one.
None of those is wrong, and the choice depends on how much owning a permanent copy matters to you versus playing on day one.
This is the latest chapter in a saga GTA 6 accidentally kicked off, from the first disc-less reveal to Sony killing discs entirely to the physical-media trolling from rival platforms and the politicians treating digital ownership as a rights issue. Sony has had a chance to address the issue of people feeling like they own less of what they're paying for. So far, it has chosen to stay silent.
It'll be interesting to see if the silence continues as the backlash grows and more and more companies either distance themselves from Sony or mock its decisions.
