Console shortage warnings for holiday — who's upgrading for GTA 6?

So retailers are already warning about PS5 and Xbox shortages this holiday because of GTA 6 launch demand. Honestly not surprised — this is gonna be the kind of release that moves hardware units.

I've been running on a launch PS5 and honestly I'm considering grabbing a second one just to have a backup. Nothing worse than your console dying mid-heist prep because you've been grinding 8-hour sessions. The disc drive situation on the newer PS5 slim models is annoying though — digital only unless you buy the add-on.

For anyone still on PS4 or Xbox One, you need to upgrade. No question. Last-gen won't cut it for what we're about to get into. Fast load times alone are worth it when you're running back-to-back setups and finales.

My take: PS5 makes more sense for the player base size. More randoms in lobbies means faster fill times for heist matchmaking, and historically the GTA online community skews PlayStation. But I get why some prefer Xbox — Game Pass ecosystem is solid if you play other stuff too.

Who else is buying or upgrading specifically for November? Which platform and what's your reasoning?

Wondering if the base PS5 and the Pro end up with any meaningful gameplay differences beyond resolution. Like, does the physics tick rate change, or does draw distance actually affect how AI spawns in open-world scenarios? That stuff matters more than 4K for actual play feel.

Also slightly worried about thermal throttling on older units during extended sessions — the launch PS5 already runs warm. If the game pushes the hardware hard, we might see some interesting crash patterns emerge that speedrunners will catalog before the rest of us.

does draw distance actually affect how AI spawns in open-world scenarios