Grand Theft Auto 6 is simultaneously the most anticipated game set to release in 2026 and the one I’m least sure will actually arrive in players’ hands in the next 12 months. Developer Rockstar has already delayed it extensively, and even though the GTA 6 release date is currently set for November 2026, further pushbacks are never out of the question. Now, a new leak suggests that you might have to wait even longer if you want to get your hands on a physical edition of the forthcoming open-world game.
The leak comes from Polish website PPE, whose insider ‘Graczdari’ says that “the physical version won’t be released simultaneously with the digital version.”
Graczdari has a good track record of leaks, including previously predicting the Oblivion: Remastered release date and the fact that Microsoft Flight Simulator was being ported to PlayStation 5. But, if true, what does this mean for GTA 6?
It’s not quite clear at the moment. While Graczdari is reporting a delay to boxed copies, they’ve received conflicting reports about the extent of it. “We’re hearing more and more that the physical version won’t be released simultaneously with the digital version to prevent leaks,” they say in the article (machine translated). “We’re getting conflicting reports: some say the physical version will arrive three to four weeks after the digital release, while others say it won’t happen until early 2027. More information will be available in mid-February.”
The decision appears to be a tactic to stop leaks from vendors breaking street dates or copies arriving early, as we’ve seen in the past with Starfield and other major releases. However, it will impact players as well.
As primarily a PC gamer, I’ve long let go of physical releases (and the chance of playing GTA 6 any time near November). I understand that I don’t own any of my games and merely lease them from Valve for the duration of my life or until it says otherwise, but it’s the price I pay for convenience and my preferred method of gaming.
Console players and those interested in preservation, however, will be worse affected. Owning a physical disk is no certainty that you’ll be able to play a game forever (the PS5 version of Concord I saw in my local second-hand game shop this weekend is a testament to that), but you’re more likely to be able to load up a long-gone single-player campaign from a disk, even if it’s been removed from storefronts in the years since.
A couple of weeks wouldn’t be the worst amount of time to wait if you really wanted a physical copy of the game. We expect dozens of hours of campaign content, so launch day players might not have even finished by the time your disk drops through your letterbox. If anything, you’ll be hand in hand with us PC players, patiently waiting for a port as Rockstar prioritizes consoles and, clearly, digital sales.
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