Video game soundtracks have spent years shedding the reputation of being secondary background noise, turning into releases that people deliberately seek out long after turning off their systems. Justice are pushing directly into that territory with their work on the score for Grand Theft Auto VI. Instead of merely licensing an existing track or curating an in-game radio dial, the duo is handling original composition duties, and they have now revealed Pusher, a collaboration with Gesaffelstein pulled directly from that effort.
The release of Pusher provides an initial sample of what Justice have put together for the project. Involving Gesaffelstein signals a deliberate, structured studio collaboration, showing that the score is being assembled with the weight of an actual artist release. Giving the track its own identity and title separates it from anonymous background cues, treating it like a proper single that listeners can engage with entirely on its own terms, away from any gameplay or cutscenes.
The music will not stay locked inside consoles or digital files either. Justice have confirmed that the full original score is set for a standalone physical release on December 11th, with pre-orders already up and running. For listeners who value holding a physical artifact, pressing the score to physical formats ensures it will sit on a shelf as a permanent piece of work rather than existing purely as an ephemeral digital file.
The labels behind the distribution speak to how standard this rollout is designed to be. The physical editions are coming together via a partnership between Because Music, Ed Banger Records, and Rockstar Games. Teaming an interactive developer directly with independent music imprints allows the score to be manufactured, packaged, and distributed through the exact same channels as any traditional record on the market. It places the video game studio alongside established record labels to treat the project like a full-scale album release.
Between the release of Pusher and the December 11th date set for physical copies, the campaign treats the Grand Theft Auto VI score as an artistic statement in its own right. Rather than letting the collaboration between Justice and Gesaffelstein serve as secondary texture for an interactive title, the rollout insists that the music should be heard, bought, and evaluated as an independent body of work.
