What's the main difference between Steam and Retail version of GTA V?

[Advait007]

I was thinking of buying GTA V steam version.But 2-3 friends of mine purchased the retail version of it.So will I be able to play online with them or not?
Are the online severs different for Steam and retail versions? :/

What's the key difference here and why did Rockstar did something like this lol?

Thanks in advance

 

[Asuveroz]

I was thinking of buying GTA V steam version.But 2-3 friends of mine purchased the retail version of it.So will I be able to play online with them or not?
Are the online severs different for Steam and retail versions? :/

What's the key difference here and why did Rockstar did something like this lol?

Thanks in advance

There is some difference. You can't add retail game on Steam (I am not 100% sure), but you can play with your friends as you can add them on Rockstar Social Club.

 

[Vynavill]

You need to check this out with Rockstar or wait for someone who knows the answer because he already tried.

I do not own the game, but I think it depends on how it handles netplay and copyright stuff. If Steam and Rockstar have two different DRM policies and two different game servers for their respective versions, then you most likely won't be able to play with your friends.
On the other hand, as it's something that has been seen with the majority of games on Steam by now, some retail games will ask you to either register a Steam account and bind the copy's key to it and/or launch with an external launcher (e.g. Ubisoft games using Uplay but sold on Steam will launch Uplay instead of the game itself, and will require you to log in and associate the game copy to an Uplay account as well); should any of these be the case, you would be actually able to play with your friends (in theory).

I repeat tho, this is just my opinion on the matter, I'm not 100% sure of this. Before you go on buying, I suggest waiting for someone else who knows the correct answer, or if you can't wait get a copy from the same place your friends got theirs.

 

[ZakX11]

The steam version makes you link your social club account with your steam account. So basically , you play the game primarily through your rockstar social club account and the retail versions just skip the middle man ( steam ) and directly activate it via rockstar social club. So you don't need to worry , I have the retail version and I play online with my friends who have bought it via steam. Both of them use the same servers , don't worry.

 

[ZakX11]

Also , rockstar basically did this so that there was a viable way for people to digitally purchase the game. You can also purchase it digitally via rockstar social club. Steam is used by millions of people to make online game purchases while rockstar social club is not. It's just more convenient for everyone to purchase it via steam where they've already set up an account with all their credit card details etc ( all they need to do is click add to cart and buy ) instead of going on social club , creating an account , entering their details , bla bla bla. You see ?