Rockstar has officially announced the GTA 6 music album, including a physical vinyl release, but instead of getting excited, I got frustrated reading about it. What bugs me about Rockstar’s latest announcement is that the album has a physical CD and vinyl, but the game doesn’t come on a disc. Instead, GTA 6 physical copies have a code in the box, and frankly, that’s baffling.
I grew up collecting GTA games on PC, whether it was San Andreas or Vice City, and I always appreciated how Rockstar included physical goodies like a map, exclusive posters, and whatnot. Likewise, I was looking forward to what goodies GTA 6 would have, but that ship never sailed. And now, with Rockstar revealing the GTA 6 albums with a disc, they’re playing in my face.
GTA 5 Had 7 Discs, While GTA 6 Has None Outside the Music Album
When I bought GTA 5 on PC back in 2015, I couldn’t believe how many discs Rockstar packed into the box, along with a manual and a double-sided poster of Los Santos and Blaine County. Since it was 7 dual-layer installation discs, it felt like opening a new book, only much better because it was Grand Theft Auto.
PC discs haven’t been a thing in quite a while, so naturally, I moved to PlayStation to grow my physical collection. I was looking forward to the GTA 6 physical release on PS5 since the first GTA 6 trailer dropped in 2023. However, Rockstar decided to go the all-digital route with GTA 6, and I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand why.
I initially thought Rockstar might have delayed GTA 6’s physical release to avoid spoilers, as that did happen with Red Dead Redemption 2 months before its release, but a prominent leaker single-handedly debunked that theory. CyberLeek posted multiple GTA 6 leaks on social media platforms, even though the game is skipping a physical release.
And now, looking at the GTA 6 music album editions, all of which include a physical CD or a vinyl disc, I wonder what went wrong. Did Rockstar make this decision to please shareholders, or because Sony is killing physical PS5 discs starting in January 2028, and they just wanted to be ahead of the game? They do have a marketing deal with Sony, so maybe I don’t have the full picture just yet.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick previously said that GTA 6 discs don’t make sense for consumers, but their argument falls apart with the official physical vinyl release on November 19, 2026. A PS5 disc is generally cheaper to produce than a vinyl disc, so this decision really makes me wonder. I doubt Rockstar would even include a map in the GTA 6 “physical” release,
I Would Easily Spend More to Own GTA 6 on a Disc
This is a hot take, but I definitely would’ve spent more on a true GTA 6 physical edition with a disc; that’s not an album or a vinyl release. I’m already paying $80 for GTA 6, So, paying an extra $10–15 for a physical disc edition doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, especially given the circumstances.
Honestly, I would’ve even paid more if Rockstar had made the disc exclusive to the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition. Regardless, Rockstar has already locked five features with the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition, so including a physical disc would have made the $100 price tag feel even more worthwhile.
Rockstar not offering a physical disc for what is probably the biggest game ever made is pretty wild to me. They have already made a fortune, with GTA 5 selling over 230 million copies worldwide, as revealed by Take-Two in an earnings call. GTA 6 pre-orders are soaring too, so would it really have been that hard to give physical fans a disc, just like it’s doing with the GTA 6 album vinyl?
No physical disc not only limits options, but also sets a dangerous precedent for future physical releases, which is unfortunately what Sony is doing too. Even with all the backlash surrounding Marvel’s Wolverine, PlayStation’s newest release, it still comes with a physical disc containing the full game. I have to give Insomniac credit for at least doing that.
There are still 2 months left, so I’m holding out hope for an eventual GTA 6 physical disc, even though the chances are slim. Truthfully, if Rockstar doesn’t give GTA 6 a proper physical disc release, then maybe it should’ve kept the album strictly digital, too.
