Following Sony and Rockstar Games unveiling the Grand Theft Auto 6-themed limited edition DualSense wireless controllers and opening up pre-orders for them, the online PlayStation store where you can buy them has already been hit by massive amounts of traffic. As reported by IGN, users have been facing wait times of over an hour as they waited in digital queues to pre-order the controller. On attempting a purchase, there have also been reports of the website suffering from errors.
Other retailers in the US selling the controller, like Best Buy and GameStop, haven’t been faring much better, with almost everyone running out of stock quite quickly after pre-orders went live. And while Sony has implemented measures to curb the practice of scalping, where someone buys a limited-edition product to then sell in the secondhand market at an inflated price, like limiting sales to only one per customer, eBay has already gotten several listings for the GTA 6 controller.
The Grand Theft Auto 6 DualSense was unveiled earlier this month. Available in two variants – black and white – the themed controller features special graphics representing the highly anticipated game. Its launch is set to coincide with the November 19th release date of Grand Theft Auto 6 across PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and both variants are available in limited quantities.
Rockstar Games has noted that the white colored version is meant to embody Vice City during the day, while the black one embodies the city’s vibrant nightlife. They are both priced at $84.99 each, and feature a color-shifting, shimmering finish that calls back to the purples and blues that make up the atmospheric color scheme of Vice City. There are also custom palm tree details molded directly into the controller’s body, along with the GTA 6 logo etched into the trackpad.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is slated to be the biggest video game release this year, and even just the Extended Look showcase that was released as a timed exclusive on Netflix managed to become wildly successful, with the streaming giant confirming that it had garnered over 31 million views. A report has indicated that the Extended Look even led to a boost in console sales across PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
More recently, analysis firm Ampere Analysis noted that the Extended Look showcase managed to be quite a success story for Netflix as well, leading to more than 100,000 new sign-ups for the streaming platform in the US. Along with this, the video also managed to bring back several lapsed users to the service who hadn’t watched anything on Netflix for the last 30 days.
“Netflix may not be able to compete directly with the biggest AAA game franchises, but it can vie for the attention around them,” said Ampere’s research analyst Katie Holt. “Trailers, reveals, and adaptations give Netflix a way into gaming culture without owning the games themselves. GTA 6 is a particularly powerful example, given the scale of the franchise and the anticipation around its launch.”
For more details about Grand Theft Auto 6, take a look at the precise launch timings for players across the world.
