‘GTA 6’ Pre-Load Date And Time Revealed, Huge File Size Confirmed

Rockstar has just published a new blog post , a rarity from the studio, revealing new information and confirming some rumors. We now know the Grand Theft Auto 6 preload date and time and how much hard drive space you'll need to install it on your console. Hint: It's a lot.

The GTA 6 Pre-load Date

The GTA 6 pre-load date is on Tuesday, November 10 for digital copies, more than a week ahead of its November 19 launch. However, there's a strange catch: if you are buying a boxed version of the game that contains a digital code, you are unable to preload until November 12, as that's when retailers are apparently getting their copies.

The GTA 6 Pre-load Time

For the GTA 6 preload time, PS5s will start at midnight local time in whatever time zone you're in. On Xbox, it's 12 AM GMT time instead, whatever that translates to in your region. Again, this is just preloading, so it's not really going to matter what exact hour or even day before release you download it. It's not like it's the game launch.

GTA 6's File Size

Rockstar also confirmed the file size of GTA 6 is 212 GB. This matches previous numbers from the infamous GTA leaker, as well as more recent insider reports that it's around that size. Obviously that is enormous, far larger than almost all other AAA games outside of something like Call of Duty loading a bunch of different modes at once. But this is essentially a AAAA game (or Ax5 game), and it has a map that's as big as the last few Rockstar maps combined. Plus, it has a huge amount of NPC volume, actions and dialogue, in addition to other factors.

This will no doubt require hard drive clearing for many. Only the PS5 Pro, now sold out practically everywhere, has a 2TB hard drive (Xbox recently discontinued new 2TB Series X models), so most players are probably operating with a 1TB model, which has less usable space than that. We're talking about a quarter (or half, with lower capacity consoles) of your hard drive dedicated to GTA 6 alone, so get to deleting. If you don't know how to pre-load, Rockstar has an article about that here.

One more bit of news is that on November 19, Rockstar will start selling a printable GTA 6 cover art poster and a map of Leonida you can digitally download. The physical version will arrive later and come with any purchase from the Rockstar store. Otherwise it's a buck.

So, a week from now you can pre-load GTA and stare at it for another nine days. Enjoy.

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This article was originally published on Forbes.com