It’s no secret that the market for physical video games is drying up, but don’t expect physical media for gaming to go away entirely anytime soon, or ever, according to Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick.
He told The Game Business that it “may not be the end” for physical media entirely in games, even with Sony killing off PlayStation discs in 2028. He said there will “always be some physical business” for gaming, but it will be a “very small part of the business.”
He likened the scale of it to the vinyl business for recorded music. Most people might stream music today, but the market for vinyl is still there–and it’s growing.
For Take-Two, however, Zelnick said its business today is 98% digital. Going all-digital has a lot of benefits for publishers, but it’s mainly about making more money. For GTA 6, the most highly anticipated game release ever, Rockstar is not offering the game on a disc, but the game will appear in stores via a code-in-a-box version.
GTA 6’s $400 collector’s edition comes with a range of physical goods (but not the game), and Rockstar is also releasing GTA 6’s score on CD and vinyl, but the game itself remains a digital-only experience.
GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. A PC edition and online multiplayer are both rumored to launch in 2027.
