Can someone read your GTA 6 code through the box? What testers found, and what's inside

Posts on ResetEra and X this week claimed that shining a strong flashlight into the side of a Grand Theft Auto VI box reveals the download code without opening it. The worry is easy to follow: GTA 6's boxed edition holds no disc, just a code, so whoever reads the code gets the game.

GamesRadar+ tried it on its staff's own copies on Nov. 13 and couldn't. Here's where the code is, what the tests found and how to buy a box without worrying about it.

Where the code is

Rockstar doesn't put the code on a slip of paper. It's printed on the inside of the back cover art, GamesRadar+ reports, which is why light shining through the case could, in theory, show it.

What the tests found

GamesRadar+ shone a light through a US PS5 copy and a UK PS5 copy, and couldn't read the code on either: a strip of camouflage pattern behind the code makes it unreadable from outside, however bright the light. Looking through unboxing videos, it found some copies carrying a PEGI age rating, the rating used across most of Europe, with a plain black strip instead, which may be the kind the posts show. Engadget, citing the original posts, also says the problem may be limited to international copies, because the US box has a backing that hides the code.

GamesRadar+ found nobody who had actually lost a code this way. A thief would have to buy a box, hope it's the vulnerable kind, read the code and then return the box for a refund, and most stores keep games behind glass. Engadget asked Take-Two, Rockstar's parent company, for comment; it hasn't reported a reply.

What's in the box

• The code, printed inside the back cover. You redeem it on the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Store and download the game, up to 212 GB, Rockstar says.
• A poster. Buyers' boxes hold a folded, double-sided poster: the cover art on one side and the cover's illustration of Lucia on the other, Mashable and NME report from unboxings.
• An empty disc holder. There's no disc, as the Rockstar Store warned. Our boxed-copy story has the rest of the details.
• No map. Unlike earlier GTA boxes, there's no paper map, which some buyers on Reddit called a disappointment, NME reports. Rockstar's free Leonida map is a separate download, with a 99-cent print.

How to buy a box safely

• Buy it from behind the counter or a locked case, and check the shrink wrap is intact.
• Redeem the code as soon as you get home, so nobody else can, and keep the receipt.
• If a code says it has already been used, take the box back to the store with the receipt.
• Buy for your own region: the Rockstar Store notes that PlayStation codes are locked to regions.

Or skip the box: GamesRadar+ points out it gets you the same download as a digital copy. Digital pre-orders could pre-load from Nov. 10, and both unlock at the same moment on Nov. 19.

Will GTA 6 ever come on a disc?

Rockstar hasn't announced one. Take-Two's chief executive, Strauss Zelnick, told The Game Business this week that physical games will hang on the way vinyl has, as a very small part of the business, and our Is it true? page on discs tracks the question.