GTA 6's disc-free box is now a political talking point, from Paris to Brasília

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the French left's veteran who took almost 22% of the first-round vote in the 2022 presidential election and is running again, pulled GTA 6 into politics on July 2. In a post on X he pointed at the game shipping without a disc in 2026 and at Sony ending disc production for new PlayStation games in January 2028, and asked what players actually buy: "Tomorrow, you will pay without ever owning anything. No lending, no resale, no guarantee of keeping what you paid for." Video games, he argued, are cultural assets rather than mere merchandise, and existing law must apply to them.

He is not alone. Brazilian federal deputy Erika Hilton said on Bluesky that she has sent a formal notice to the country's consumer protection authority over Sony's disc phase-out, noting that buyers still pay extra for consoles with disc drives that will have fewer and fewer new discs to read. And French MEP Emma Rafowicz promised to raise the topic in the European Parliament, referencing the Stop Killing Games preservation campaign.

For GTA VI the trigger is specific: Rockstar confirmed on June 24 that the boxed edition holds a download code instead of a disc, and on July 1 Sony announced the January 2028 cutoff for pressed games. Within a week the empty-box complaint traveled from fan forums to a presidential platform, a consumer watchdog and the EU. None of it changes how the game ships on November 19, but the debate about what you own when you buy it has clearly outgrown gaming forums.