Why pre-ordering GTA 6 on Thursday can be an absolute nightmare

On June 25, everyone can finally pre-order Grand Theft Auto 6the biggest game of 2026 and, frankly, the entire decade. As exciting as next Thursday should be, it could also end up being a glorious mess that takes over the internet and becomes the talk of the world for a few days. The hype is certainly real, the anticipation is intensely palpable, and the chaos may well turn out to be legendary.

Rockstar's long-awaited sequel is set for a November 19th debut exclusively on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S; as GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2PC owners will have to wait for their return ticket to Vice City. With the game getting so much attention, a lot of people are likely to be swept up in the rush, even if they pre-order GTA 6 maybe not the best move. Even beyond that, Thursday can bring its own challenges.

GTA 6 could cause a meltdown in the storefront

Want to spend your Thursday staring at the PSN checkout screen?

Industry analysts like Tom Henderson predict that GTA 6 was able to earn roughly $1 billion within the first hour of pre-orders, which translates to roughly 10 million checkouts. Think about that for a second; on Thursday, millions of people will simultaneously bombard digital checkouts to claim their ticket to Ambrosia, whether through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store or Rockstar Launcher. No server framework on Earth is built to withstand that kind of concentrated, catastrophic weight class, and history proves it.

In 2020, the Epic Games Store did temporarily GTA 5 for free, which caused such a spike in traffic that the store crashed. Keep in mind that Rockstar's game was about 7 years old at the time, and its giveaway still caused an avalanche that temporarily wiped out servers. Sure, GTA 6 won't be available on the Epic Game Store, but storefronts like PSN have hardly proven immune to the occasional crash or freeze during checkout.

Considering the elderly GTA 5 caused all that, GTA 6 represents a whole other level of architectural nightmare. Rushing to hit “Buy” the minute the links turn green on Thursday can be a recipe for frozen checkout screens, error codes, double-billing transaction errors, and localized network outages. If you don't want to spend your afternoon fighting a crashing digital storefront just to look at a “purchased” receipt, the only way to go is to wait out the first traffic storm.

The Blind Performance Gamble

Rockstar's track record is not as spotless as it once was

These days, common wisdom dictates “trust no one.” Unfortunately, many big games launch in poorly optimized states that can't be fixed with a Day One patch, causing buyer's remorse in the process. Now, Rockstar's track record with major console releases is largely positive, with both GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 enjoying fairly flawless debuts. However, both of these games fell a long time ago, and they were followed up RDR2s buggy PC release and GTA Trilogys horrific launch.

We have yet to see a single frame of unedited, live GTA 6 the game runs natively on a PS5 or Xbox Series. Pre-order means paying cash based on a promise, old history and strong marketing (and name recognition). Rockstar sticks to its own schedule, and historically the developer doesn't reveal practical game mechanics until about 2 months before launch. If that pattern continues, the players won't see how GTA 6 perform or handle until September, months after millions of pre-orders went through.

Don't get me wrong, Rockstar know what they're doing and may very well deliver on all their promises, but pre-ordering on Thursday is blindly assuming that a multi-city open-world game with complex physics, hyper-density and advanced AI systems will run smoothly on 6-year-old consoles. Are you going to roll the dice?

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GTA 6's wild price guessing game (and the industry domino effect)

Depending on the price, GTA 6 could set a new, more expensive standard

With the pre-order date officially set, Rockstar simply needs to reveal one important detail: GTA 6s price. The developer and Take-Two have apparently decided to wait until the last second to reveal this tag, and the publisher's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has repeatedly danced around the topic by saying that GTA 6 will be priced significantly below its value. While we can't know for sure, leaks AND the fact that Take-Two didn't just state that it would be the industry standard price suggest that the base edition could break the mold and demand $89.99.

On the surface, this might not sound like a huge deal, but the real nightmare extends beyond Vice City. Rockstar and Take-Two lead the industry in many ways, and a price increase followed by a very successful pre-order window could give other publishers the go-ahead to increase the base price going forward. I won't name any names, but everyone knows that a few publishers are desperately waiting for someone else to be the “bad guy” and break the $70 ceiling. Take-Two did this back in 2021 when NBA 2K21 became the first triple-A game to cost $69.99.

The illusion of the digital deficit

Don't fall for FOMO

Image via Rockstar Games

Unless someone plans to pick up a physical copy or a limited edition Collector's Edition, they have absolutely no reason to pre-order a digital copy. FOMO, aka “Fear of Missing Out”, is pure marketing psychology that weaponizes player excitement to essentially give publishers an interest-free loan worth millions. Yes, digital copies tend to offer some superficial bonuses, but these usually don't expire.

Most likely, you will receive the same incentive regardless of whether you pre-order GTA 6 on June 25 or November 18. Placing an order on Thursday rewards you with absolutely nothing. To be clear, I completely understand getting swept up in the hype, and I'll probably be pre-ordering a physical copy of the PS5 version sometime in the next few weeks. Just don't feel the need to pre-order a PSN or Xbox Store copy to make sure you don't miss launch day.

Also keep in mind that Rockstar has yet to announce the release date for GTA 6s PC port, which may well turn out to be the “enhanced” version. I imagine most people will double down by getting the game on console and then on Steam; However, if you have a top-of-the-range PC powerful enough to provide the sun, you may want to consider waiting for the PC release so you can experience the game for the first time at its best.