Like Doom or Battlefield or a handful of other video games with the distinction, Grand Theft Auto is one of a few still-relevant gaming franchises that have lasted through multiple different generations of the medium. When the first game debuted all the way back in 1997 (exclusively available on PC at the outset) it was kind of a far cry of what the franchise would become, a top-down level-based action-adventure, but since then there have been releases on every generation of console since then – from the fifth generation which saw the rise of the original PlayStation to the eighth generation with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. GTA is undoubtedly a series that took full advantage of the rapid expansion of video games as technology and an artistic medium, growing exponentially in scale along with each new development in the industry.
Now, a whole six years after the official start of the ninth generation with the release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, gaming’s reigning king is on the cusp of returning. Grand Theft Auto 6 (technically the eighth game in the franchise overall) is right around the corner and reaching critical mass for gamer anticipation, and its release date of November 19th can’t come soon enough for fans. However, depending on who you ask, there may be a teeny-tiny little problem – the physical edition of the game, which will be sold in (some) stores, won’t come with a disc but instead a download code, which is a continuation of a worrying trend in gaming but across multiple different artistic industries at the moment.
