Rockstar may skip GTA 6 review copies to prevent pre-launch leaks

The gaming community was in uproar earlier this week when a Best Buy affiliate email began circulating online. It stated that pre-orders for the physical edition of Grand Theft Auto VI would start on Monday, May 18, 2026, and run through May 21.

Journalists and reviewers won’t receive review copies for Grand Theft Auto VI

During the latest episode of the Insider Gaming Weekly podcast, a claim came from YouTuber Nukov, who was quoted as saying, “There will be no previews of GTA 6. No review copies will be sent out. There will be nothing.”

This rumor aligns with another claim from Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, who said that Rockstar might not send out review keys or early copies to journalists or reviewers at all.

Speaking to news outlet Portal Viciados (which uploaded the clip to X), he said, “Nobody is getting a key for this game. It looks like there will be some kind of review event. Journalists will be sent there and will spend a few days there so there are no leaks. Everyone will play in a closed room.”

It makes sense to fly out and supervise reviewers and journalists for hands-on demos of Grand Theft Auto VI, considering it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest releases in video game history. Given that Forza Horizon 6 was allegedly leaked by a reviewer and pirated nine days before its May 19 release, Rockstar Games will surely take extra steps to ensure no GTA 6 leaks happen.

GTA VI Pre-Orders Won’t Go Live on May 18, 2026

With GTA 6’s release date locked for November 19, 2026, many of us were ready to pre-order the game, but according to insiders, pre-orders will not go live on May 18 or anytime soon, for that matter.

In the same podcast, reputable insider Tom Henderson explained the situation in full. He said the pre-order email was legitimate, but added that pre-orders won’t go live for months.

He said, “Yeah, we’ve said this for the longest time, right? I think we’ve all said that we believe we’re not going to get anything tangible until July or August—especially August, when their next earnings call is going to be.”
Further speculation suggests that the email may have been based on older marketing and release plans for GTA 6 and reportedly slipped out by mistake. Still, nobody is sure about the whole situation. Tom Henderson said:

“That email was legitimate. Now, does that mean that they planned to have the trailer, then it got pushed back, and that email still got sent out anyway? Was this a mistake? We simply don’t know.”

The timing of this podcast is particularly interesting given that a store in Italy has seemingly jumped the gun by offering and selling out of copies in the meantime.