{"id":2010761,"date":"2026-06-25T14:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2010761"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:42:17","slug":"online-retailers-are-stating-that-ps5-gta-6-codes-can-only-be-played-in-the-country-theyre-bought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2010761","title":{"rendered":"Online retailers are stating that PS5 GTA 6 codes can only be played in the country they&#8217;re bought"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/grand-theft-auto-vi\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Grand Theft Auto VI<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Online retailers are stating that PS5 GTA 6 codes can only be played in the country they&#8217;re bought<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">EU have to be joking.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/ULTIMATE_EDITION_ELECTRIC_FANG_03.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Official GTA 6 image showing Jason and Lucia leaning over a rail in a dive bar\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"ULTIMATE_EDITION_ELECTRIC_FANG_03.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Rockstar \/ 2K<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sherif Saed avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/IMG_1950_Uy1XomJ.JPG?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1638\" height=\"1346\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Sherif Saed avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"IMG_1950_Uy1XomJ.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1638\" height=\"1346\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/sherif-saed\">Sherif Saed<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-06-25T14:42:17+00:00\">June 25, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-online-retail-country-code-in-box-limitation?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          13 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"7685df9e-22e2-4b0e-a893-03c1781df5f1\" data-name=\"Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Grand Theft Auto VI\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\" title=\"Follow Grand Theft Auto VI\"><br \/>\n  Follow Grand Theft Auto VI<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-is-up-for-pre-order\">Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders have officially gone live<\/a> in many parts of the world, and while many players will be placing their pre-orders through the PlayStation and Xbox Stores, many others will order from Amazon and online retailers.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s much less of a reason to buy a physical copy this time around, however, because the prices are identical across physical and digital, and because  the physical version <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/grand-theft-auto-6-preorders-gta6-no-disc\">includes a code in the box and no disc<\/a>. That voucher code can only be redeemed once, locking it to your account forever. In other words, you won&#8217;t be able to re-sell your copy when you&#8217;re done with it, hence why it&#8217;s nearly pointless to buy a physical copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-everything-we-know-so-far-9357\">GTA 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VQRLujxTm3c?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/VQRLujxTm3c\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VQRLujxTm3c\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>But there is another, potentially even more frustrating wrinkle. A number of users have spotted a warning displayed on the GTA 6 listings across several major retailers&#8217; websites in the UK, that says: &#8220;The PlayStation 5 version can only be used by users holding an account for PlayStation registered to the United Kingdom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.game.co.uk\/rockstar-games-grand-theft-auto-vi-756802#colcode=75680269\">GAME<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Rockstar-Games-Test1\/dp\/B0H25M1QJS?th=1\">Amazon<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/uk\/en-gb\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/playstation-5-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5\/p\/263307\">Smyths<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopto.net\/en\/ps5gr11-grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5-p1203732\/?currency=GBP\">ShopTo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamecollection.net\/products\/grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5\">TheGameCollection<\/a> all have the same disclaimer. Eurogamer has verified these listings, and found them to include nearly identical language.<\/p>\n<p>The same warning can also be seen on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/ie\/en-ie\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/playstation-5-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5\/p\/263722\">Smyths&#8217; Republic of Ireland website<\/a>, though it instead requires users to hold &#8220;an account for PlayStation registered to the Republic of Ireland&#8221;. The Republic of Ireland is a European Union country that is not part of the United Kingdom. This detail is important because digital game codes sold in EU countries have always been redeemable in all member states, as well as others in the European continent that are not part of the EU, like Iceland and Norway.<\/p>\n<p>It is against EU law to geo-block products across European Economic Area borders. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_21_170\">the European Commission fined Valve and several other publishers on Steam \u20ac7.8m for breaching that law<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Making matters more confusing is that other European retailers, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternate.de\/Take-Two-Interactive\/Grand-Theft-Auto-VI-PlayStation-5-Spiel\/html\/product\/100208012\">Alternate<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saturn.de\/de\/product\/_grand-theft-auto-vi-playstation-5-3058717.html\">Saturn<\/a> in Germany and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.game.es\/videojuegos\/accion\/playstation-5\/grand-theft-auto-vi\/263849\">GAME Spain<\/a> instead have differing versions of the standard disclaimer, which states that code can be redeemed in the usual list of countries. In some cases it reads &#8220;code redeemable only within Europe and Switzerland&#8221;, and in others it lists a large list of countries that all fall within the EMEA PlayStation region. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamarkt.de\/de\/product\/_grand-theft-auto-vi-playstation-5-3058717.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqNfeH5qysQnd_EgSHniYyzzOX3734jMkpQ9hDVEbLPVllFS8Cm\">MediaMarkt Germany<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.micromania.fr\/p\/grand-theft-auto-vi-code-de-telechargement-161836.html\">Micromania France<\/a> don&#8217;t have any such disclaimers.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Official GTA 5 image showing a black muscle car at a busy junction\" height=\"2160\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/grand-theft-auto-5s-latest-pc-screenshots-sure-are-a-looker-142748238469.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"3840\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Official GTA 5 image showing a black muscle car at a busy junction\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"grand-theft-auto-5s-latest-pc-screenshots-sure-are-a-looker-142748238469.jpg\" height=\"2160\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"3840\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Rockstar \/ 2K<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You&#8217;ll notice that all of these listings are for the PS5 version of GTA 6. When we started working on this story, several of the same retailers included a similar disclaimer on the Xbox Store as well. But Xbox Series X\/S codes have always been region-free, which is probably why those listings have now been updated to remove that language &#8211; though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/ie\/en-ie\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/xbox-series-x-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-xbox-series-x\/p\/263638\">some<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/uk\/en-gb\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/xbox-series-x-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-xbox-series-x\/p\/263308\">still<\/a> remain.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s going on here? Given the disparity across the stores we looked at, it&#8217;s possible that some retailers are being extra cautious to avoid cross-country ordering. It&#8217;s also possible they simply made a mistake, just as it is equally probable they&#8217;re relaying the information they were given by Rockstar&#8217;s sales department without looking too much into it.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve contacted some of the UK retailers for clarification.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-is-up-for-pre-order\">Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders have officially gone live<\/a> in many parts of the world, and while many players will be placing their pre-orders through the PlayStation and Xbox Stores, many others will order from Amazon and online retailers.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s much less of a reason to buy a physical copy this time around, however, because the prices are identical across physical and digital, and because  the physical version <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/grand-theft-auto-6-preorders-gta6-no-disc\">includes a code in the box and no disc<\/a>. That voucher code can only be redeemed once, locking it to your account forever. In other words, you won&#8217;t be able to re-sell your copy when you&#8217;re done with it, hence why it&#8217;s nearly pointless to buy a physical copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/gta-6-everything-we-know-so-far-9357\">GTA 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VQRLujxTm3c?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/VQRLujxTm3c\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VQRLujxTm3c\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>But there is another, potentially even more frustrating wrinkle. A number of users have spotted a warning displayed on the GTA 6 listings across several major retailers&#8217; websites in the UK, that says: &#8220;The PlayStation 5 version can only be used by users holding an account for PlayStation registered to the United Kingdom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.game.co.uk\/rockstar-games-grand-theft-auto-vi-756802#colcode=75680269\">GAME<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Rockstar-Games-Test1\/dp\/B0H25M1QJS?th=1\">Amazon<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/uk\/en-gb\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/playstation-5-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5\/p\/263307\">Smyths<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopto.net\/en\/ps5gr11-grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5-p1203732\/?currency=GBP\">ShopTo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegamecollection.net\/products\/grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5\">TheGameCollection<\/a> all have the same disclaimer. Eurogamer has verified these listings, and found them to include nearly identical language.<\/p>\n<p>The same warning can also be seen on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/ie\/en-ie\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/playstation-5-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-ps5\/p\/263722\">Smyths&#8217; Republic of Ireland website<\/a>, though it instead requires users to hold &#8220;an account for PlayStation registered to the Republic of Ireland&#8221;. The Republic of Ireland is a European Union country that is not part of the United Kingdom. This detail is important because digital game codes sold in EU countries have always been redeemable in all member states, as well as others in the European continent that are not part of the EU, like Iceland and Norway.<\/p>\n<p>It is against EU law to geo-block products across European Economic Area borders. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_21_170\">the European Commission fined Valve and several other publishers on Steam \u20ac7.8m for breaching that law<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Making matters more confusing is that other European retailers, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternate.de\/Take-Two-Interactive\/Grand-Theft-Auto-VI-PlayStation-5-Spiel\/html\/product\/100208012\">Alternate<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saturn.de\/de\/product\/_grand-theft-auto-vi-playstation-5-3058717.html\">Saturn<\/a> in Germany and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.game.es\/videojuegos\/accion\/playstation-5\/grand-theft-auto-vi\/263849\">GAME Spain<\/a> instead have differing versions of the standard disclaimer, which states that code can be redeemed in the usual list of countries. In some cases it reads &#8220;code redeemable only within Europe and Switzerland&#8221;, and in others it lists a large list of countries that all fall within the EMEA PlayStation region. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamarkt.de\/de\/product\/_grand-theft-auto-vi-playstation-5-3058717.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqNfeH5qysQnd_EgSHniYyzzOX3734jMkpQ9hDVEbLPVllFS8Cm\">MediaMarkt Germany<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.micromania.fr\/p\/grand-theft-auto-vi-code-de-telechargement-161836.html\">Micromania France<\/a> don&#8217;t have any such disclaimers.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Official GTA 5 image showing a black muscle car at a busy junction\" height=\"2160\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/grand-theft-auto-5s-latest-pc-screenshots-sure-are-a-looker-142748238469.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"3840\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Official GTA 5 image showing a black muscle car at a busy junction\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"grand-theft-auto-5s-latest-pc-screenshots-sure-are-a-looker-142748238469.jpg\" height=\"2160\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"3840\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Rockstar \/ 2K<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You&#8217;ll notice that all of these listings are for the PS5 version of GTA 6. When we started working on this story, several of the same retailers included a similar disclaimer on the Xbox Store as well. But Xbox Series X\/S codes have always been region-free, which is probably why those listings have now been updated to remove that language &#8211; though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/ie\/en-ie\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/xbox-series-x-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-xbox-series-x\/p\/263638\">some<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smythstoys.com\/uk\/en-gb\/gaming-and-tech\/pre-order-games\/xbox-series-x-pre-order-games\/grand-theft-auto-vi-xbox-series-x\/p\/263308\">still<\/a> remain.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s going on here? Given the disparity across the stores we looked at, it&#8217;s possible that some retailers are being extra cautious to avoid cross-country ordering. It&#8217;s also possible they simply made a mistake, just as it is equally probable they&#8217;re relaying the information they were given by Rockstar&#8217;s sales department without looking too much into it.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve contacted some of the UK retailers for clarification.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Grand Theft Auto VI Online retailers are stating that PS5 GTA 6 codes can only be played in the country they&#8217;re bought EU have to be joking. Image credit: Rockstar \/ 2K News by Sherif Saed Contributor Published on June 25, 2026 13 comments Follow Grand Theft Auto VI Grand Theft Auto 6 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2010761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2010761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2010761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2010761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2010761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}