Let's not forget, the era of physical media and games delivered as a monolithic block of content is over.
The only reason we're all talking about it is that a great game created via what's now a legendarily stupid development process - both from a financial and manpower perspective - has jolted the peak install base of the current console generation into a final death rattle.
Don't be fooled. This will not happen again.
All the time. Everywhere
Instead, over the past 18 months, the silent assassin - games as a service - has made its mark on the global games industry.
Despite the queues, audiences don't want to wait five years for their next slice of gaming delight. They want it now, yesterday in fact.
Content is constantly being created, downloaded and tweaked and refreshed with plenty of mobile games generating over $1 million net per day.
Sure GTA V will generate over $1 billion at retail - good news for GameStop, Walmart and Tesco - but how much net revenue do you think Supercell or King is going to generate over the next five years?
I'll bet it's more than Rockstar.
Old world
Of course, this isn't to demean Rockstar's achievement over the past decade.
GTA V is the culmination of a colossal amount of blood, sweat, tears and hundreds of millions of marketing dollars, but games are not made and launched this way any more.
If that model was working, Take Two's share price would be booming. It's actually declined over the past 10 years.
Compare that to GungHo Online; a company that, on the basis of one game, has seen its value eclipse that of Nintendo at times this year.
Now, that's a bubble.
Learnings from baseball bat
Yet, there are lessons mobile developers can learn from GTA V
Anticipation is a powerful viral marketing tool and if you can guarantee an extremely high quality of game experience, you can charge for it - even on mobile.
But for the vast majority of studios over the next couple of years, this model is just not going to work.
The risks are too great, the audience too small, and few mobile games currently have the gravitas to build the sort of franchise that's expected by the current generation of hardcore queuers anyhow.
That will come, however, as Chair Entertainment is demonstrating with each baby step release of Infinity Blade.
And, let's face, the industry will be better for it too. Photo of kids kissing DVDs, or angry-looking teenagers standing in queues do nothing for reputation.
