Is anyone here interested in GTA VI

[Strathclyder]

The PS5 is only going to go up in price thanks to AI data centres, and now Sony seems set to (further) destroy its reputation by deleting digital content that people paid for, and stopping the sale of physical discs in the future - so if you buy a game online, they can remove it down the line... how long seems to be how long they think they could get away with.

For me and no doubt many others, it's not so much the end of phyiscal disc production on it's own as much as what it represents once you peel that layer back: the loss of consumer choice, the decimation of the second-hand market (which I've heavily relied on for building up my own game collection in recent years), a direct attack on game preservation/conservation and their storefront being the only place you can buy their games digtially, which in turn creates a closed ecosystem where they can charge whatever price they like or delist it and/or straight up remove it from your account with little to no warning even though YOU paid for it.

Yes, the market and it's buying trends have been marching towards digital-only for a good number of years now and most people simply don't care, but digital game purchases are effectively a licence that they can charge full price for and which can be revoked whenever Sony feels like it.

The perception of greed and lack of regard of it's customers hasn't been helped by them selling the PS5/PS5 Pro with disc drive (and the disk-drive seperately for the digital-only consoles) at ever increasing prices, only to then turn around and kill off phyiscal disc production entirely before this console generation is even over. Needless to say, all this has left me seriously reconsidering purchasing a PS5 at all and just going for a Switch 2.

Hardly surprising that Sony are gettng sued in more than one country right now over this exact issue.

It's damn frustrating because once the fuss dies down, I bet Microsoft will do the same and possibly even Nintendo.

Strange as it sounds, Nintendo will probably end up be the last holdout of The Big Three despite everything surrounding the Game Key Cards, as they're still - for the time being at least - producing full cartridges for the Switch 1 which can then be played on the Switch 2 through backwards compatabilty. I can't see them ceasing production of said cartridges before Sony ceases disc production.

 

[Darandio]

Strange that the consensus is that Nintendo will be the last bastion for physical media. Lot's of talk out there about the game key cards on the Switch 2, even further talk about the fact that they have the ability to render one of these cards null and void remotely.

 

[Strathclyder]

Strange that the consensus is that Nintendo will be the last bastion for physical media. Lot's of talk out there about the game key cards on the Switch 2, even further talk about the fact that they have the ability to render one of these cards null and void remotely.

That seems to be the perception some people have at least, regardless if there's any actual truth to it given everything surrounding the Game Key Cards as you say.

My personal take on it is, given the fact they've not hinted at, let alone outright announced, that they're ceasing production of the 'full-fat' Switch 1 cartridges yet, coupled with and the aforementioned backwards compatabilty with the Switch 2 in mind may lend some credence to it, but who knows what the future holds?

As long as the Switch 1 remains a viable budget option to the SW2 (despite the former also seeing price increases in recent months), I can see them maintaining production of the cartridges for it, at least for the time being.

 

[Silent]

I think non physical media is the present and future in forms of media. However the major game consoles were slow to go to fully non physical media and now that we realise the negatives of non physical media, maybe, this has made Sony mentioning they are going fully discless with future game consoles a hard transition.

Maybe if streaming existed but didn’t take over dvd / cd’s and MP3’s in popularity we would have similar backlash if most laptop manufacturers decided to get rid of disc drives now in 2026 rather than in 2010.

I’m thinking that there needs to be more thought into how non physical media will be preserved. I think, on the owners side, it does suck because non physical definitely means that they don’t completely own the media.

But then the media can still be archived obviously. But it might be that we have to pay for old non physical media when it’s no longer supported by Sony servers.

I tried playing gta iv on a new xsx I got and couldn’t save because I couldn’t download the x360 profile I needed, nearly did but it took so long that I gave up. So an x360 live account was needed to save the game but because x360 live servers isn’t well supported this has made access to x360 games maybe hard despite the xsx supporting it.

 

[GusB]

I think digital is the present and future in forms of media. However the major game consoles were slow to go fully digital and now that we realise the negatives of digital media, maybe, this has made Sony mentioning they are going fully digital with future game consoles a hard transition.

Anyone who had a first-generation Playstation was dealing with digital media.

 

[Statto]

It's damn frustrating because once the fuss dies down, I bet Microsoft will do the same and possibly even Nintendo.

That was one of the things MS tried to do the XBox One was launched, maybe not digitally related, but certainly disc related, but the fallout over that was immense (although that wasn't the only issue with the XBox One at launch), Sony took the p*ss out of MS over it, & most of us went to Sony & bought the PS4 instead, MS have struggled ever since & have admitted since then that was the worst console generation to lose.

 

[Silent]

Anyone who had a first-generation Playstation was dealing with digital media.

True, I meant non physical media medium.

 

[Statto]

I often go back to GTA3/Vice City/San Andreas as they still hold up to this day (you can also get some mods for the PC to make them a better experience on modern hardware!), GTAIV and GTAV are OK but the missions are a lot more scripted so you can't go off course otherwise you just instantly fail them!

Vice City in particular I was stuck for WEEKS on 'Demolition Man' and 'Death Row' (it later turned out you can just fly a helicopter into the junk yard which sort of proves my point about how it was a lot more fun when things weren't as scripted!)

GTA3 was good, missions were enjoyable.

GTAIV became a chore to play, missions weren't as good (i lost interest after the bank robbery, Three Leaf Clover, mission) & the biggest annoyance with GTAIV was when approaching the start of the mission you always got a phone call from someone wanting you to hang out with them, which you felt compelled to do, which is an optional extra in GTAV.

GTAV even though Trevor Phillips is one of the most unpleasant characters ever created, & can cause a shootout in an empty house, the missions became enjoyable.

 

[Silent]

I think like with RDR 2, GTAIV it slowly grows on you and you have to be interested in the story to like the game. Also you have to get use to the pace on both of these games as extra weight is added to the physics to try and make it more realistic feeling.

 

[Bantamzen]

For me and no doubt many others, it's not so much the end of phyiscal disc production on it's own as much as what it represents once you peel that layer back: the loss of consumer choice, the decimation of the second-hand market (which I've heavily relied on for building up my own game collection in recent years), a direct attack on game preservation/conservation and their storefront being the only place you can buy their games digtially, which in turn creates a closed ecosystem where they can charge whatever price they like or delist it and/or straight up remove it from your account with little to no warning even though YOU paid for it.

Yes, the market and it's buying trends have been marching towards digital-only for a good number of years now and most people simply don't care, but digital game purchases are effectively a licence that they can charge full price for and which can be revoked whenever Sony feels like it.

The perception of greed and lack of regard of it's customers hasn't been helped by them selling the PS5/PS5 Pro with disc drive (and the disk-drive seperately for the digital-only consoles) at ever increasing prices, only to then turn around and kill off phyiscal disc production entirely before this console generation is even over. Needless to say, all this has left me seriously reconsidering purchasing a PS5 at all and just going for a Switch 2.

Hardly surprising that Sony are gettng sued in more than one country right now over this exact issue.


Strange as it sounds, Nintendo will probably end up be the last holdout of The Big Three despite everything surrounding the Game Key Cards, as they're still - for the time being at least - producing full cartridges for the Switch 1 which can then be played on the Switch 2 through backwards compatabilty. I can't see them ceasing production of said cartridges before Sony ceases disc production.

Whilst I agree on the licensing issue, increasingly games will connect to remote servers to check for updates, validate installs etc, especially AAA titles like GTA VI that will doubtless come with a myriad of DLC and in-game purchases. Sadly Rockstar have discovered just how how much they can make with this kind of model now, and others are in hot pursuit, so dependence on digital is only going to increase. It's pretty much how it is on PC, physical copies are all but a distant memory and games are bought and played through platforms like Steam. And frankly it is far more advantageous, having your library available by simply logging on to any Steam capable device means you're not dragging multiple disks around with you, and even means you can jump on a portable device to play if you so wish.

Yes all this means that the risk exists that older games may eventually become unsupported, and eventually the hardware will become redundant too. But honestly there's so many emulations for almost every platform out there, with massive archives of long forgotten titles. So it's not hard to fall back in time to play older platforms that would be all but impossible to play unless you have the original hardware. For example I've got a hardware ZX Spectrum emulator, in the original design of case, that I can play all Speccy titles across all iterations of the machine. I've also recently downloaded an Atari ST emulator onto my gaming rig, and can tap into that world's library of games too.

The reality is that the vast majority of gamers will transition to all digital eventually, and most won't be looking to play a game they bought a decade or more ago. Sure it will hit the collectors market, and those just trying to make a quick buck on selling retro games at daft prices (usually to the former group), but there are always some losers in gaming as the tech marches on.

 

[Trackman]

The reality is that the vast majority of gamers will transition to all digital eventually, and most won't be looking to play a game they bought a decade or more ago. Sure it will hit the collectors market, and those just trying to make a quick buck on selling retro games at daft prices (usually to the former group), but there are always some losers in gaming as the tech marches on.

I suppose the majority of PC gamers use Steam so won't miss a physical copy.

 

[DerekC]

What's GTA??

 

[AilsaBus]

What's GTA??

A computer game called Grand Theft Auto. You can basically do whatever you want in it like kill people, get prostitutes, drag people out of their cars and generally just do stuff that is frowned upon in the real world.

 

[nick291]

I'm excited for it. It's set in a fictional version of one of my favourite American cities so I'm curious to see what we'll be able to do and where the story goes. £90 well spent on the ultimate edition though I'm not too happy that it's digital only.

 

[Silver Cobra]

I used to be quite the fan of the GTA games (particularly Vice City and San Andreas), but I fell out of love with the series around the early part of this decade. While I have enjoyed playing through the storylines of the more recent games, the change in the physics to push for 'realism' has made the actual gameplay side a lot less enjoyable for me compared to the simpler mechanics of the GTA III era titles. As such, I don't really have any interest in actually playing GTA VI. I'll probably just watch playthroughs of the game by streamers I follow, seeing as most of them will no doubt switch their content to be exclusively GTA VI.

I'm looking beyond GTA VI's release for other upcoming games that pique my interest more, such as Final Fantasy VII Revelation and Spyro: A Realm Beyond.

 

[Bantamzen]

I suppose the majority of PC gamers use Steam so won't miss a physical copy.

I recently moved from PS4 to a high end gaming rig, and honestly it never even occurred to me to include a drive for physical games when building the specs for it. If you look at the majority of PC cases, they don't even include any racks for a disc drive, the spaces usually taken up with fans to keep air flowing through the rig. Steam dominates the market, and many games won't start without Steam.

 

[Trackman]

I recently moved from PS4 to a high end gaming rig, and honestly it never even occurred to me to include a drive for physical games when building the specs for it. If you look at the majority of PC cases, they don't even include any racks for a disc drive, the spaces usually taken up with fans to keep air flowing through the rig. Steam dominates the market, and many games won't start without Steam.

I've got a large tower case, its years old, but for drives it has four SSD cradles on the back motherboard side so to speak and six brackets on the bottom of the case for normal HDDs.
On one large SSD I store Steam games on it.
I wouldn't dream of buying a physical disk for a PC game as Steam manages updates and file integrity.

 

[Statto]

I've got a large tower case, its years old, but for drives it has four SSD cradles on the back motherboard side so to speak and six brackets on the bottom of the case for normal HDDs.
On one large SSD I store Steam games on it.
I wouldn't dream of buying a physical disk for a PC game as Steam manages updates and file integrity.

I have a laptop which can handle most games including Train Sim World 6, GTA V & Red Dead Redemption II (no doubt be able to handle GTA VI whenever that gets released for the PC), it just needs an extra external hard drive as i have 57GB storage space left, max storage space for my laptop is 455GB.

My laptop is wired up to a monitor through HDMI

 

[nlogax]

Today's an absolute feast for those of us invested in GTA VI. The Netflix 'Extended Look' airs at 8pm, and a gaggle of content creators who were invited to R* North in Edinburgh to play the game will have their embargoes lifted immediately afterwards. I'm going to be watching YT clips way past midnight, I just know it.

I'm rather hoping this stems the leaks from a particular source who as of yesterday was still sharing gameplay from an earlier build.

 

[LocoGuy]

I’m staying away from the leaks. Focusing on tonight and official trailers. Too excited for it to be ruined by leaks. Pre ordered the game the day it went on sale

 

[Silent]

I’m staying away from the leaks. Focusing on tonight and official trailers. Too excited for it to be ruined by leaks. Pre ordered the game the day it went on sale

I heard one person say that the leaks were probably an inside job.

 

[johntea]

Netflix has crashed already so well done on that idea

 

[King Lazy]

I used to play a mod on GTAIV and V that allowed you to play as cops. You could get al sorts of police vehicles with working light bars and do traffic stops, respond to calls and various other stuff.

 

[Trackman]

Netflix has crashed already so well done on that idea

Oh, so was it tonight? I thought it was yesterday. (in the UK)

 

[nlogax]

Oh, so was it tonight? I thought it was yesterday. (in the UK)

Released on Netflix at 8pm this evening UK time and will be on R*'s official YT channel at 2am though you can find it on other channels already.

The game looks astonishing. Rumours suggest all the footage was captured from a base PS5. I'm hoping a couple of the UI elements are tidied up (for instance the weapon wheel looks unfinished) but what I saw tonight makes GTA V look like Horace Goes Skiing.

 

[Trackman]

what I saw tonight makes GTA V look like Horace Goes Skiing.

Blimey, that's quite a boast.
Cant wait to see the preview!

 

[ajwffc]

the release also crashed Twitch with the numbers watching it

 

[Silent]

Released on Netflix at 8pm this evening UK time and will be on R*'s official YT channel at 2am though you can find it on other channels already.

The game looks astonishing. Rumours suggest all the footage was captured from a base PS5. I'm hoping a couple of the UI elements are tidied up (for instance the weapon wheel looks unfinished) but what I saw tonight makes GTA V look like Horace Goes Skiing.

It reminds me of rdr2 more and I have played cyberpunk 2077 but didn’t complete it. Visually sometimes it reminded me of cyberpunk. I need to rewatch it though. Looks like there is more focus on how people actually act in this game compared to previous gta iterations. The characters seemed more human like to me. But then I think gta iv was similar in that way as someone like Trevor in gta V is unrealistic as to how people are, it’s like an exaggeration, though I’m replaying gta V currently.

 

[nlogax]

It reminds me of rdr2 more and I have played cyberpunk 2077 but didn’t complete it. Visually sometimes it reminded me of cyberpunk. I need to rewatch it though. Looks like there is more focus on how people actually act in this game compared to previous gta iterations. The characters seemed more human like to me. But then I think gta iv was similar in that way as someone like Trevor in gta V is unrealistic as to how people are, it’s like an exaggeration, though I’m replaying gta V currently.

Fair to say it feels like RDR2 was truly the lab for most of what will land in GTA6. The honour system, the lack of old-style cutscenes and more player-controlled involvement in scripted scenes, the effect of lifestyle on characters etc. Reportedly the NPC ai has been markedly improved and there is a depth to the overall world that's never been seen elsewhere.

Graphically there is so much to digest. Cyberpunk 2077 is a stunning-looking game but this as a representation of a real world location is on another level. Visually I don't think that 27 minute preview skipped a beat.

 

[TheSmiths82]

I didn't even like GTA5 much as I found it too linear. I just want to get in a car and drive and not be forced to do stupid missions. I am currently only using the built in graphics of my Ryzen, but I am rebuilding my PC with a expensive PSU (I want to protect my 32gb of RAM!!) and a nice new case. I will buy a second hand graphics card too but it still won't be able to handle GTA6. I might go back to GTA5 though (I still have it in my steam library) once I get a new second hand graphics card.