Sony's latest move on game ownership — why GTA fans should be paying attention
So Eurogamer just dropped a pretty fiery opinion piece about Sony basically following Microsoft's lead on killing actual game ownership, and honestly? This is something we should all be talking about, especially with GTA VI on the horizon.
The article's author points out that barely a week ago, they had to write about Rockstar nudging the first domino in the collapse of physical game media — and now Sony's doubling down on the same trend. The piece is actually a spiritual successor to an older editorial called "Microsoft kills game ownership and expects us to smile," and the fact that we keep needing updated versions of that article is... not great.
Look, we're all hyped for GTA VI. But the way things are heading, we might be renting access to it rather than owning it. No discs, no real ownership, just digital licenses that can be revoked or delisted whenever a corporation decides it's convenient.
The author didn't expect to be writing yet another version of this same story so soon — and definitely not twice in a single week.
This isn't just a Sony problem or a Microsoft problem anymore. It's an industry-wide shift, and GTA VI is going to be one of the biggest test cases for whether consumers actually push back or just go along with it.
How do you plan to "own" GTA VI — physical, digital, or subscription — and does the loss of real ownership even matter to you?
Source: Eurogamer (GTA keyword) · Curated content.
Honestly, I think we're conflating two different things here. Sony going all-digital on a console SKU isn't the same as Rockstar's distribution strategy. Take-Two still moved millions of physical units with GTA V. The Collector's Edition market alone probably makes physical worthwhile for them.
What I'm watching is whether the official GTA VI promotional material mentions platforms and formats. That trailer just said "2025" — no storefront specifics, no "coming to Game Pass" language. Rockstar plays their cards close. If they announce a physical Collector's Edition with actual memorabilia, that tells you where their head's at.
The real question isn't ownership versus rental — it's whether GTA Online's ongoing model already makes "ownership" of the base game moot.
Remember when you could pop in a disc and cruise through Vice City FM without some server validating your right to listen? There's a reason DJs still hunt vinyl — needle drops hit different when you own the groove. Same energy applies here. Physical copies meant that soundtrack was yours, locked in, no revocation. Now imagine Rockstar delists a station's license mid-playthrough because some contract expired. We've already seen it happen with older GTAs losing tracks. The mood dies when the music gets taken away.