Nine days until GTA 6: what to do this week
Pre-load's open, the Festival lottery shuts on the 10th and boxes hit shops on the 12th. Here's the week from 10 to 19 November, one day at a time.
By Wes Calloway
GTA 6 is nine days away, and as of today you can already download it. Pre-load opened on 10 November, so this week is really about getting your console ready, grabbing anything with a deadline and not getting scammed while you wait.
Here's the plan, day by day. Every date below comes from Rockstar's Newswire unless we say otherwise.
Tuesday 10 November: start the download
Pre-load is live. On PS5 it started at midnight in your own time zone. On Xbox Series X|S it went live everywhere at once, at 12am GMT. Rockstar says the file needs "up to 212 GB depending on your device", so check your free space before you hit the button. Our pre-load guide has the full walkthrough and times.
While it's going, run your system update and check your pre-order actually went through. Open the store, find the game, and make sure it shows the edition you paid for. If you've only got 150 gigs free, now's the time to delete that open-world game you finished in 2023.
If you want to go to the Festival in Miami, the 10th is the deadline. The pre-sale lottery closes at 4pm ET on the 10th, and you need an active DICE account to enter.
Wednesday 11 November: Festival tickets
Tickets for Grand Theft Auto VI: The Festival go on sale to lottery winners on the 11th. They're "limited to two per pre-sale lottery code", so sort out who you're going with before you buy.
Thursday 12 November: boxed copies in shops
This is the day the code-in-box versions for PS5 and Xbox should start showing up at retailers. Shacknews, which wrote up Rockstar's post on 3 November, says the same. If you went physical, there's no disc to install from, so you'll still be downloading the game from the code inside. Get it home early and pre-load from there.
The weekend: sort out the boring stuff
Use the quiet days to book time off. Launch day's a Thursday, so if you're planning to call in sick, have a read of our piece on launch-day productivity first. Students, the same goes for that Friday deadline you've been ignoring.
It's also when the scams get loud. Anyone selling "early access", a beta key or a download link for the full game is lying, and those links are how people lose their accounts. We wrote up the early-access scam doing the rounds if you want the details.
Wednesday 18 November: reviews and a basketball game
Review codes are out, and the embargo's reported for 18 November. That's a report, not a Rockstar date, and our review embargo piece has where it came from.
That night the Miami Heat play the Milwaukee Bucks as "Vice City" at the Kaseya Center, with a custom court and a new uniform, VGC reports. GTA BOOM has tip-off at 7pm ET, on ESPN in the US. It's a strange one, and honestly it's the most Miami way to spend launch eve.
Thursday 19 November: launch
Launch day. Check what time it unlocks where you live, because midnight isn't the same midnight everywhere.
Rockstar's also putting a free printable cover art poster and a map of Leonida up on the official site that day. A double-sided physical one follows on the Rockstar Store "shortly after launch" for $0.99, or free with any order there.
We'll be running our live blog through launch week, so that's where everything lands as it happens.
Saturday 21 November: the Festival
Two days after launch, the Festival takes over Mana Wynwood in Miami, with Travis Scott, Cardi B, Metro Boomin and Justice (doing a DJ set) among the names on two stages. If you got a ticket on Wednesday, enjoy it. If you didn't, you've got a whole new state to drive around instead.
What are you playing it on?
Votes are anonymous. One per browser.
Sources
- Rockstar Newswire, Grand Theft Auto VI pre-load begins on November 10
- Rockstar Newswire, Grand Theft Auto VI: The Festival
- Shacknews, GTA 6 pre-load starts November 10, file size is 212 GB
- VGC, Miami Heat NBA team to rebrand as 'Vice City' in GTA 6 marketing stunt
- GTA BOOM, GTA 6's Miami Heat Vice City night now has a tip time
Keep reading
NewGTA 6 pre-load is live: what time it started for you, and how to make sure it's downloading
PS5 opened at midnight in your time zone, Xbox at midnight GMT, and the file's up to 212GB. Here's the timing by region, the settings Sony and Microsoft say you need, and why it still won't play until the 19th.
3 min read
GTA 6 preload: when it starts, how long it takes, and the two settings that stop it stalling
Pre-loading opened on 10 November, nine days before launch. On a typical home connection the download is an overnight job, and a console that falls asleep halfway through is how people miss launch night.
3 min read
Which SSD for GTA 6 on PS5, and when deleting things is cheaper
Sony publishes a hard requirement and most budget drives miss it. What the PlayStation 5 actually needs, what Xbox needs instead, and the case for buying nothing.
3 min read