Rockstar clarifies which GTA 6 pre-order download codes are going to be region-locked, and how that is going to affect the game in your country

When Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders initially went live a little over a month ago, a number of retailers posted conflicting messages about which countries and regions the controversial code-in-the-box download code is actually going to work.

Rockstar has since updated the GTA 6 support page with new details on the different regional restrictions. For starters, the support article confirmed that – based on where you buy your copy at retail – some restrictions on where that code can be redeemed will apply.

The best way to avoid any potential issues is to buy a copy in a country that matches your platform account. In other words, don’t buy a US copy of the game if you don’t have a US account.

This only applies to the PlayStation 5 version of the game, however, due to how PlayStation Network account restrictions work. As we suspected when we initially reported on that confusion, Xbox codes are not region-locked, and can therefore be redeemed anywhere in the world regardless of your account region.

The support article also revealed another wrinkle for players in Japan. If you buy a code-in-the-box physical copy of GTA 6 in Japan, that code will expire 170 days after it was printed. Rockstar says this is in accordance with local regulations. This means the last date you can redeem your code – assuming it was printed on the launch date of 19th November – is 8th May 2027.

So which countries have code redemption limitations? Rockstar answered that question by posting a list of all major regions, and where codes purchased in each one can be redeemed. Here’s the full list:

• Brazil: Brazil.
• LATAM: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay.
• North America: Canada, United States.
• Korea: South Korea.
• Japan: Japan.
• United Kingdom: United Kingdom.
• Saudi Arabia & UAE: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.
• Rest of Asia: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand.
• Rest of EMEA and Asia: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.

Outside of the retail market, GTA 6 has been topping pre-order charts digitally across almost all PlayStation Store regions. Given how highly anticipated the game is, this was easy to predict. That said, Rockstar’s decision to not include a physical disc in retail copies of the game likely pushed many to buy it digitally through their console’s store, at least then they’d be able to pre-load it.

Collectively, pre-order data is looking very healthy for Rockstar, even if it resulted in some absurd claims about the amount of money the company has already made from pre-orders. Though one insider has claimed a version with a physical disc will arrive before the end of the year, others have shot down the idea, saying Rockstar has no plans to release physical copies with discs at any point.