Yeah I also find GTA timing suspicious...
whether it's Sony piggy banking off Rockstars announcement and using it as a Trojan horse to give their decision more context or Rockstar being compelled by an awareness of the impending discless future, I don't think it's a coincidence.
I mean Sony has clearly poured some financial support Rockstars way in terms of marketing & release (Best on Playstation, entire GTA branded UI) so Rockstar going an all digital route would be something they were aware of and unprecedented for such a big AAA game. The logic of it being used to avoid leaks just sounds a bit overkill to me. Every AAA game has gone through the same process but suddenly GTA can't dare afford to be printed onto disc lol. The most damaging leaks we've seen was TLOU2 and that had nothing to do with disc distribution.
As far as Sonys plan, they would have gradually been reducing disc production throughout the gen & thus had long term plan already in place for end of the disc production or what they're factories would look like with extremely limited disc production. The exact timing however was likely a moving topic as is always the case of these things. Likely the exact date/decision and announcement strategy was made sooner than a lot of people are suspecting.
Last edited by Otter - on 08 July 2026
