As much as I hate these kind of "google it, stupid!" threads myself, I just had to make one myself. I've been googling myself to death as of recently and still haven't found an official statement from Rockstar crew themselves, regarding the ability to pre-download GTA V in advance. I just checked the PSN Store again and it does say "Expected Auto-Download Date: 13/09/2013" and "Available for Download on 13.09.2013" over there, but I just can't be sure of it, after the whole leak thingy.

So I was just wondering if one of you (or a Wizard) happens to be less blind than I am and has read some official bit of text from Rockstar about this whole deal.

P.S. In before, "Does it really matter?" Yes, it sure as hell does! At least with my connection the download becoming available on launch would mean that I'd maybe get to play it on friday, if lucky...

$ony screwed up and GTA5 leaked early, not up for pre download but maybe closer to launch

I have a similar question, because I'd like to buy a digital pre-order from PSN Store, but its not up anymore. Does anyone know if they'll put the digital download back up?

The pre-order is still up everywhere, just the pre-download was taken offline. From the information available it seems like the UK will be able to pre-download a few days before release. The US has no pre-download option and won't before release.

Yeah, I never saw any possibility for 'complete' pre-download at least when I made my pre-order (26th of August) but I'd still be more than alright with it being on 13th day. Hopefully it'll be at least a few days early, if not that...@jimmy_p and are you talking about the whole GTA V not being there? I can still see it over at the Store and on my "Purchased" list, at least over at Finland.

@glottery: finally found the pre-order on the PSN store. I must have been blind, but it's pretty well hidden, there is nothing about it on the front page of the store or in the coming soon section

If II can't pre-load the game, what's the point of getting it digitally? It'd be faster to dash to a store at midnight instead of waiting for a download...

If there's no preload i'm debating the value of not being lazy and go to the store vs waiting for a download on launch day with servers that will no doubt crumble under the pressure and save 9$ in taxes.

Apparently folks over at Europe can already download the Blimp DLC as of today. Theme is still locked off 'till monday. The pre-load of the game itself should be starting tomorrow...or tonight? I hope the auto-download on PS3 is an actual auto-download, so when I leave it on for the night (in-case it'll start during that), I won't have to look at "Accept download?" pop-up as the first thing in the morning.

With The Last of Us I had already pre-loaded the game but due to some timezone thing I couldn't play until after 1am UK time. I wonder if it'll be the same with this...

So, is the pre-load up in Europe? Anyone tried it yet?

Nope. Been reading about it through the whole day and have seen some very mixed posts about it. Though the latest shimmer of light was some guy from official PS forums, who claimed to have been in contact with some support guy who said it would come available for download during this evening still or within the next 24 hours. Here's hoping...

...and now it seems to be 16/9/2013 in the Store. Fuck.

Well, looks like the pre-load won't be available until Monday. So I'll be picking up my physical pre-order at midnight after all, it seems.

And this is just for the EU store. The NA store never offered a pre-load to begin with even before the leak happened.

As long as I can start my download at the time they say I can at Midnight, I'll be fine. I haven't had downloads take an insane amount of time and it should be done by the time I get off work.

...aaaand now it's downloadable on sunday from 3pm (GMT) forwards. Maybe. Not holding my breath. I might be leaning towards physical copy in the end, anyway. Not exactly sure why I ended up on digital in the first place, really. Guess it was for the "convenience" of it, even if in reality I can just walk over to a nearby shop on tuesday to get my game...I'll just blame on the hype for messing up with my mind.

Could use part of that 70 €uros on Brothers and some future Last of Us singleplayer DLC, now that I think about it!

GET HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE

Rockstar confirmed pre-load times for both EU and the US!

I'm pretty amped for this news. As a guy who works in a bar, I never get home before 2AMCST, meaning I anticipated having to download the game Monday night when I got off work, let it install while I sleep and get crackin' around noon the next day.

But if this shakes out right, I should be able to just pull an all-nighter when I get home early Tuesday morning and get to crackin' on that install.

Any idea how many gigs is the download? Also, do we get any pre-order bonuses through PSN?

18GB download. You need 36GB of free space for the installation as it downloads the install files and install afterwards.

You get the atomic blimp pre-order bonus on PSN and a PS3 theme for the XMB.

@pr1mus: Thanks for the info, duder!

Apparently the initial US preload info tweeted by Rockstar was incorrect. There isn't going to be a preload in NA:

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/378690600909807616

That's disappointing but I'm not surprised. I wonder why Sony allows it outside of the US.

Would love to just buy this on PSN however £49.99 is crazy when I can just get it for £34.99 from Amazon =/. I really hope this is something that's improved with the PS4, digital prices of full games is far too high compared to retail and is the only reason I'm not buying online.