GTA 6 review copies are reportedly out, and a second source backs the 18 November embargo

Somebody, somewhere, is playing GTA 6 right now. On 26 October the leaker NateTheHate posted that "Rockstar Games have begun to distribute review code of Grand Theft Auto 6 to media outlets", and Insider Gaming says it can independently verify the reports.

Insider Gaming also has the review embargo on 18 November, the day before launch. That's the same date a ResetEra poster called BlackBate gave last week, which we covered here, so it now has two sources behind it instead of one.

Why the timing matters

If codes went out in the last week of October, reviewers get roughly three weeks with the game before they're allowed to publish. For something this size that's tight but normal, and it's a lot more than the handful of days some huge games give critics. Rockstar did the same kind of thing with GTA 5, whose reviews went up the day before it launched in 2013.

It also lines up with everything else Rockstar's been saying. Rob Nelson told Famitsu this month, laughing, that the game's definitely coming out on the 19th. Studios don't send out review code for a game that might slip.

What we still don't know

Rockstar and Take-Two haven't confirmed any of it, and nobody's said what time on the 18th the embargo lifts. BlackBate's earlier post put Metacritic scores at about 6 to 7am Eastern, with some sites and YouTubers held until launch day itself, but that part's still one person's claim.

A heads-up on spoilers

Once codes are out, spoilers start leaking. Reviewers mostly keep quiet, but thousands of copies in the wild plus millions of people desperate for any scrap is a combination that always leaks somewhere. If you want to go in clean, now's a good time to mute words like "ending" and "final mission" alongside the obvious ones.

The YouTube side is where people are most nervous. One channel known for posting game endings around launch posted a palm tree emoji this week and fans took it as a sign he's got a copy. There's nothing to back that up, and creators with codes sign NDAs, but it's a good reminder of how fast this stuff travels once it starts.

When scores do land, they'll be on our review scores page as they come in. Until then, any score you see is made up.