The most awaited videogame in history, Rockstar’s GTA 6 which is about to hit the consoles this fall, is also the game that’s going to spearhead the all-digital direction as there won’t be any physical version of the game, at all. But according to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, as he stated during a Q&A with analysts following the company’s Q1 2027 financial release, the physical discs, at this point in time, “don’t really make sense for the consumer.” He also added the following:
“Our business is well over 90% digitally distributed,” Zelnick said. “It’s already a digital business. So in certain instances, especially if it’s a big game, discs just — and note I said discs — don’t really make sense for the consumer.
“Also, most instances you have to register online to play anyhow. So if you’re already connected, who cares if you download digitally? It’s all the same and it’s much more convenient.
“So that’s where the world is going in our opinion and I think Sony understands that. We certainly understand that. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have physical additions now and then, I’m sure we will in the same way that there’s still vinyl in the recorded music business. But in other instances, it just won’t make sense.”
While it’s true that in terms of functionality, digital versions of games offer a more hassle-free experience but it’s the complete lack of choice for the consumer that’s the more concerning factor in this case.
Also, one of the problems of the complete loss of physical media is that it’ll give players far less control over their owned videogames and can essentially remove all sense of ownership and rights which in turn leaves all of that in the hands of the publishers. This also takes away all sense of freedom of playing that gamers have with their owned copies which is damning in more ways than one, making the industry move one step closer to a centralized, authoritarian model where huge corporations have all the control while the players have almost none.
