GTA 6 pre-load starts 10 November: the exact times here and how to free up 212 GB

Before you count the days to 19 November, count the gigabytes. Rockstar's official site now lists the GTA 6 pre-load for 10 November - nine days ahead of launch - and the install needs up to 212 GB of free space on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S, depending on your device. Rockstar's own original pre-load date, announced with pre-orders in June, was the 12th, and an unofficial leak had put the size at roughly 210 GB; the figures on Rockstar's page now are the ones to plan around.

When it actually opens here

The two platforms don't unlock the same way. On PS5 the pre-load opens at midnight local time, so in central Europe that's 00:00 on Tuesday, 10 November. Xbox runs on a single global clock - midnight GMT - which here means 01:00. Xbox players wait an extra hour. Not a drama, but worth knowing if you were planning to start the download and go to bed.

From what's been reported, pre-load is tied to digital pre-orders. If you're buying a boxed copy from a local shop, note the 12th - the original pre-load date is now the day code-in-box retail copies arrive, a week before launch. With a disc you'll install from the disc and pull whatever patch is live on launch day. Either way the storage problem is yours too, it just arrives a little later.

The 212 GB problem

This is where it gets real for a lot of people. A launch PS5 has about 667 GB usable out of its 825 GB SSD - GTA 6 alone can eat up to roughly a third. The 1 TB PS5 Slim has around 848 GB usable: better, but not roomy if you also keep Call of Duty and a couple of sports games installed. Worst off is the Xbox Series S. Of its 512 GB, about 364 GB is actually usable, so if GTA 6 lands anywhere near the top of that range it takes well over half the console. On a Series S that's basically "GTA plus one other game", and probably not a big one.

Then there's the download itself. At the full 212 GB, a genuine 100 Mbit/s line needs up to about four and three-quarter hours. At 50 Mbit/s it's closer to ten. If you're on a slower connection outside the cities - and plenty of people in our region still are - you're looking at a full day or more. That's exactly what the pre-load window is for. Use it, rather than waking up on the 19th to a progress bar.

What I'd do this week: check free space now, not on the 9th. Delete the games you haven't touched in months - save files are kept separately from the game install, so removing a game doesn't wipe your progress, and re-downloading later only costs time. If you were already eyeing an extra SSD, this is the moment it stops being a luxury. Just keep in mind that on both PS5 and Xbox Series X|S you can store current-gen games on a regular USB drive, but you can only play them from internal storage - or an M.2 drive on PS5 and the official expansion card on Xbox.

One more honest thought: up to 212 GB is the size of the game before any day-one patch. Rockstar hasn't said how big that will be, so leave yourself some slack.

Image: Photograph: Radomianin / Public domain, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boulevard_Hotel_(Neon_sign),_Miami_Beach.jpg