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The story
The download code bundled with retail packaged copies of GTA6 is being sold for less than the PS Store purchase price, sparking discussion on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board. The thread also zeroed in on the code’s unusually short 170-day expiration period, with some suggesting a link to Japan’s reserve-deposit system under the Payment Services Act. Speculation flew about why such a short expiration was set and whether prices would keep falling after launch, alongside a broader debate over whether to buy the retail or store version.
What people said
what's the reason they're trying to make it expire so quickly?
Fire Emblem is ¥8,980 lmaooooo
Guess I'm buying GTA6 lmaooooo
It's because SIE doesn't want to pay a reserve deposit to the Legal Affairs Bureau
There's a law called the Payment Services Act — if you make the code have no expiration, you're required to deposit 50% of the value of unused codes with the Legal Affairs Bureau
Not totally sure how it works, but I think it'd be fine to have like a 2-year expiration, like Monster Hunter does
It means SIE's finances are so bad they can't even afford the reserve deposit
If you actually want it, you've gotta treat it like a game of chicken
I think they'll only sell as many as were pre-ordered
I still remember when consumption tax went from 5% to 8%, Geo just relabeled their ¥100-with-tax rentals as ¥100-before-tax
I'm genuinely curious what happens once it's about to expire
It's probably mostly pre-orders, worst case they only stock one copy 🤣
Buy the PS version now and switch over once the PC version drops
At Yamada Denki it comes out to ¥7,117 including point rewards
or do you go for the price?
If pre-loading is available that shouldn't matter though
Games like this tend to make a big pointless deal out of a worldwide simultaneous release, with Japan getting some oddly specific launch time lol
You can buy the package a week early, so you can play at midnight launch with the packaged version too
Once the code expires, wouldn't they just be selling an empty box?
With food you can at least cook it into something else, but you can't do that with a game package
That's some seriously bad inventory to be stuck with
Wait, is GTA6 an SIE (Sony)-published title?
No, that's not it — I'm talking about the code expiration thing
Because it's cheaper
Right now it's ¥9,800 on the PS Store, versus ¥8,300 this way
Though obviously that advantage disappears the moment the PS Store runs a sale
Since most third-party titles these days go on sale within half a year, the real effective window is even shorter than that
People are saying it's probably around 70% of retail, same as with discs
Even at a 15% discount, the math still works out to a profit
It's such an inconvenient truth nobody wants to touch it
Is there any version besides Xbox? PlayStation (snort) users who want to enjoy the game's mature content
paying a whole ¥8,000 for the censored version with the adult scenes cut
and playing a version worse than the Xbox one — isn't that the real contradiction?
Oh, you're a 'real gamer' (lol), my apologies
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Under Japan’s Payment Services Act, issuers of prepaid codes with no expiration date (a category known as ‘in-house prepaid payment instruments’) are required to deposit an amount equal to 50% of unused balances with the Legal Affairs Bureau as of each reference date, once those balances exceed a certain threshold. Setting an expiration of roughly six months or less is said to exempt a code from this rule, and the 170-day period discussed in the thread falls within that range. Some posters speculated that the short expiration meant ‘SIE’s finances must be in bad shape,’ but similarly short expiration windows are commonly used on other companies’ download codes as a way to sidestep the deposit requirement, and don’t necessarily signal financial trouble. The thread also included practical exchanges about purchasing methods — such as how the price gap between the store and retail versions could vanish once the Store version goes on sale, and whether buying the packaged version still allows play from midnight on launch day.
*This article is compiled from excerpts of, and a summary of, the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [Geha]) thread “GTA6’s retail price is dirt cheap lolololololololololololololololololol.”
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