Zelnick says we'll all be streaming games in 3 years, so what's that mean for GTA 6?

Caught this Eurogamer piece about Strauss Zelnick's latest comments during the Take-Two earnings call. He's out here saying that in about three years, we'll all be streaming our games. Not just buying digital, but full-on streaming like Netflix for games.

I mean, we already knew Take-Two is all in on digital. They've been saying for a while that physical sales are a tiny fraction of their business now. But streaming is a whole different thing. Zelnick seems to think the tech and consumer habits will line up that fast.

Makes me wonder what that means for GTA 6 down the line. Obviously it's launching as a traditional game on PS5 and Series X|S this November. No PC version announced, no streaming version. But if Zelnick's timeline is right, by 2029 we could be playing GTA 6 through a cloud service instead of downloading 200GB to an SSD. Maybe that's how they eventually bring it to platforms that can't run it natively, like Switch 2 or whatever, or even to phones.

Rockstar's been pretty quiet about their own streaming plans. They had that Stadia deal for RDR2 back in the day, but that's dead. I could see them partnering with Xbox Cloud Gaming or maybe even doing their own thing through the Rockstar Games Launcher. Three years from now would be late 2029, so GTA 6 will have been out for a while. Perfect timing for a "Game of the Year" re-release on streaming platforms, I guess.

Still, I'm not sure I buy that everyone will be streaming by then. Internet infrastructure is still a mess in a lot of places, and latency on a game like GTA 6 would be brutal. But Zelnick's got the data, so who knows.

Source: Eurogamer · Curated content.

Three years feels optimistic, but if we're streaming by then, GTA 6's physics glitches might act weird under lag. Would input delay break wall breaches?

Three years feels optimistic

Zelnick's timeline lands late 2029. GTA 6 releases November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Series X|S. That's a three-year, two-month gap. Rockstar has announced no cloud SKU. No streaming logos in trailer 1 (Dec 2023) or trailer 2 (May 2025). I'll note them if the August 27 extended look includes any.

I'm hoping streaming doesn't stutter during a Flash FM set! A ruined needle drop would hurt more than lag ever could!