First GTA 6 'physical edition' appears online and gamers can't stop laughing

Grand Theft Auto VI launches later this year for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but disappointingly won’t include a disc in its physical edition.

We’re not surprised anymore, as shortly after this bombshell, PlayStation dropped another into the already ablaze crater. From 2028 onwards, it’ll no longer manufacture discs for its games, basically confirming plans to make the PlayStation 6 an all-digital console.

Now we don’t know how PlayStation expected gamers to take that news, but the backlash since has been immense. Every social media post PlayStation has thrown out so far has been derailed by comments demanding a U-turn.

The situation almost made us forget that Rockstar Games threw the first stone after its controversial GTA VI announcement…almost.

GTA 6's first ‘physical’ copy of the game is exactly what you’d expect

Reddit user DocikCZ shared their own fan creation on the GTA VI subreddit. It was a custom-made PS5 cover for the game with the cover art on the front and some images/descriptions on the back.

It’s a cute creation, but that’s not why it drew so many eyes. One of the pictures DocikCZ provided was of the inside of the box, which was obviously barren with nothing in the disc hub.

“That last image is very funny”, said APTAPTAPT69, “legit just the inside of the ‘physical edition’ of GTA VI at launch.”

It’s true, instead of paying for a “physical” copy of the game, you could easily make your own, just like DocikCZ did.

“I would wanna get it from my local store, but that last picture is what I'm afraid of getting, not even the printed map. Neat project eitherway OP,” replied another comment by Fily_16.

For those who might not remember, physical copies of Grand Theft Auto V came with a fold-out map of Los Santos. Given that GTA VI’s open-world is meant to be several times larger than GTA V, the chances of getting something similar later this year are slim.

That said, there must be something in the physical edition that makes it worth getting right? A map or something similar wouldn’t justify the price, but at least you’d see something else when you opened the case for the attached code.

Unfortunately, little treats like that are a thing of the past these days. Or they’re saved exclusively for the collectors' editions. Rockstar Games hasn’t said a word about a collector's edition of GTA VI but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one at some point. The ‘ultimate’ version of the game costs $99 though, so God knows how much an even more complex edition would cost.

GTA V’s physical game fiasco is a worrying sign of what’s to come for the game industry moving forward.

With PlayStation shelving physical media by 2028 and Xbox likely following suit, all gamers will have to bow to digital editions sooner or later. That’s especially terrifying when you realise how easily you can lose access to your games…

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