Gamers Given Until Next Tuesday to Decide Which of Their Other Games They Love Less Than 'GTA 6'

NEW YORK — Rockstar Games confirmed this week that “Grand Theft Auto VI” can be pre-loaded starting Tuesday, November 10, and that the download will take up to 212 GB “depending on your device,” giving the nation’s console owners exactly seven days to decide which of the games they already own they love less than one they have not played yet.

The pre-load opens at midnight local time on PlayStation 5 and at midnight Greenwich Mean Time on Xbox Series X and S, which works out to 4 p.m. Pacific on Monday, November 9. The game itself arrives November 19, more than 13 years after “Grand Theft Auto V” and after two delays, a span in which a great many people bought a console, filled it, and quietly stopped looking at the storage screen.

That screen is expected to get a lot of traffic this week. A launch-model PlayStation 5 ships with about 667 GB of usable space, so the new game will occupy roughly a third of it before a single car is stolen.

“We are seeing families gather around the storage menu the way they used to gather around the radio,” said Lorraine Pettibone, director of the Center for Household Gigabyte Planning, a research group that does not exist and has never needed to more. “Somebody says, ‘What about the soccer game?’ Somebody else says, ‘That is your brother’s.’ Nobody has opened the soccer game since 2023. It stays. It always stays.”

Analysts expect the heaviest losses among large games that were started with real enthusiasm, reached a point described by players as “the part with the boat,” and have been sitting at 41 percent complete ever since. Experts said those games will not be deleted so much as “released into the cloud save,” where they will be very happy and visited on holidays.

Buyers who prefer something they can hold face their own process. The boxed retail version, which reaches stores on November 12, contains a download code, according to Rockstar, and Forbes reported that people who buy it cannot start pre-loading on the 10th like digital customers. Industry observers called it a bold reinvention of the physical game: a box that holds the right to wait two more days and then download 212 GB anyway.

Rockstar is also offering a double-sided physical poster for 99 cents, or free with a Rockstar Store purchase, plus a free digital poster and a map of the game’s fictional state of Leonida on its website on release day. The poster takes up no storage at all, which several households said made it the most considerate item in the launch.

“My son walked me through it,” said Pettibone, describing a conversation she did not have with a child she does not have. “He said, ‘Mom, I can delete the racing game, the shooting game, and the game where you are a goat, or I can keep the goat.’ He kept the goat. Then he asked if we could buy a bigger drive. That is how the economy works now.”

Retailers reported steady interest in external storage, and parents reported steady interest in what an “NVMe” is and why it costs that much. Rockstar, for its part, encouraged fans to pre-order to make sure they are able to play on launch day.

At press time, a 2019 sports game with 300 hours on the clock had been asked to step into the hallway, and was reportedly taking it well.