With Grand Theft Auto VI only a few months away, its arrival is shaping up to be one of the largest launches the medium has ever seen. Exactly how those opening days will play out remains anyone’s guess. Regardless, the industry is in for a monumental few weeks, however the game itself is received.
The promotional push has picked up noticeably in recent weeks. Rockstar has already locked in an extensive preview of the game on Netflix on August 27. In the meantime, though, the title keeps surfacing in other places — a healthy sign that things remain on schedule.
A brief PlayStation clip did a full trailer’s job
PlayStation’s official account on Twitter/X posted a short trailer video pitching the idea that players can “experience unforgettable moments” on the platform. A handful of marquee PlayStation titles flashed by in rapid succession — GTA VI among them.
Two snippets were included. The first shows Lucia speeding away from something with Jason clinging to the back of the vehicle. The second has Jason on a dirt bike, outrunning a crop duster-style plane.
Not a frame of it is fresh footage. Still, seeing it turn up with under three months left before the current release date should signal that November is still holding.
The replies went somewhere PlayStation didn’t intend
The trailer was presumably meant to sway players still weighing up which platform to buy the game on. What it actually drew were responses overwhelmingly dominated by anger over the news that the platform is walking away from physical media.
That sore point cuts deeper with GTA VI than with most releases. It’s another game skipping discs entirely, shipping a code in the box instead — an approach that firms such as Nintendo have normalised over the past year or two.
It also piles onto a grievance that was already following the game around: a number of shops and features sit behind the $100 edition.
Rockstar can afford to shrug it off
None of this turbulence alters the underlying arithmetic. GTA VI is heading for an enormous payday for Rockstar, with most analysts pegging first-week turnover somewhere between $3–5 billion.
On top of that sits GTA Online, a cash cow in its own right once it eventually arrives.
Set those figures alongside a pile of irate replies about disc drives, and it’s hard to imagine the developer losing much sleep over it.