Zelnick says Take-Two is already a digital business, over 90% of sales are digital

Take-Two just had their latest earnings call and Strauss Zelnick dropped a stat that puts the whole physical vs digital debate to bed. When asked about Sony winding down disc manufacturing, he said the publisher's sales are "well over 90% digitally distributed" and called it "already a digital business."

That's a massive number. For a company that's about to launch GTA 6, it means the physical release is going to be a tiny sliver of total copies. I wouldn't be surprised if the boxed version is just a code in a case with some goodies, like we've seen with other big titles lately.

It also makes you wonder how much longer they'll even bother pressing discs. The Ultimate Edition has the Vintage Vice City Pack as a pre-order bonus, but you can get that digitally too. The only real reason to grab a physical copy might be for the collectible stuff, and even that feels like it's on borrowed time.

Zelnick's comments came during the same call where they revised net bookings up to $8.2 billion for the next fiscal year, so they're clearly not worried about losing disc revenue. GTA 6 is going to be a digital monster no matter what.

Read the full thing over at Eurogamer if you want the numbers.

Source: Eurogamer · Curated content.

That 90% stat seems nuts, but I might be underestimating digital uptake. Anyone worried about preload servers melting day one?

preload servers melting day one

thats the real headache for rp. day one youre gonna have every server owner scrambling to push updates, whitelists broken, and the main rp clients choking under the load. digital only means rockstar can patch live but it also means if their cdn hiccups the whole rp pipeline stalls.

90% dont shock me tho. rp crowd has been digital since forever. physical at this point is just a code in a box for collectors. even the vintage vice city pack is just a pre order checkbox.

if youre buying a disc for gta 6 youre basically paying extra for shelf clutter. rp lives on installs and launchers anyway.

code in a case

ngl thats basically all it is anyway lol

i was gonna hunt for a used disc next year to save money but forget that. standard edition gang. my dorm shelf doesn't need more plastic

Couldn't care less about shelf clutter east of my desk. I'm just hoping the digital preload lets me boot straight into Grassrivers (or Ambrosia, if the servers hold) without a disc check slowing the load. Physical copies feel like relics from old Los Santos. Give me the map, not plastic.

code in a case

Exactly. For a title this heavy on systems, digital is the only viable deployment method. If pursuit parameters or loadout tables are broken day one, Rockstar can push a hotfix without a recall. Physical media can't handle that response time. I'm more concerned about server load than shelf clutter. Let me boot straight into Vice City or Port Gellhorn with current patrol routes and loadouts. A disc check just slows response.