A strange rumor that popped up online last month claimed that, to avoid early leaks, Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive were going to delay the physical release of Grand Theft Auto 6 and the game would only launch digitally. That’s not the case.
On February 3, as part of Take-Two’s Q3 fiscal results, the company’s longtime CEO Strauss Zelnick told Variety bluntly that the online rumors swirling around GTA 6‘s physical launch were nothing to worry about.
“That’s not the plan,” Zelnick told the outlet.
This odd rumor popped up in January after a Polish site reported that a Rockstar insider had heard that GTA 6′s physical and digital releases could be split up. Once the rumor popped up in January, it quickly spread and was reported by sites like Dexerto and was posted across places like Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Here is the original, now debunked, claim:
“We are getting more and more information that the box version will not be released simultaneously with the digital version to prevent leaks.”
However, Kotaku was unable to verify the rumor with any of its sources. And to be honest, it always seemed odd, especially when you consider digital games have leaked via pre-loads. In fact, that happened with GTA V over a decade ago. And now that Zelnick has weighed in officially to call the rumor false, hopefully that’s the end of it. Now, GTA fans can go back to figuring out the SPF rating of an NPC’s sunscreen via wild math and trailer screenshots.
Grand Theft Auto 6 launches November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Take-Two has confirmed that marketing for the game will begin sometime in the summer.