No GTA 6 for PC Gamers at Launch, Rockstar Confirms

[evernessince]

How many versions of the Xbox one exist? How many versions of the PS4 or PS5 exist? Now how many computers with completely different hardware configurations and combinations exist compared to those consoles?

It sucks but there is a reason why developers develop games from the ground up for console first then port to PC rather than the reverse and its even more inherently so since console gamers make up the biggest share of the market compared to PC gamers.

Its not as simple as slapping an OS on stuff and saying it should have cross compatibility. Games still need to be optimised for certain hardware configurations and its easier and quicker to do it for console than pc when nobody knows or will know what the hell you are running under the hood.

There are 1.1 billion PC gamers vs 611 million console gamers. Technically speaking the PC is worth far more than any single console.

Mind you it's not like releasing on PC and console at the same time is something rare. The vast majority of AAA games are able to. This is just an example of Rockstar being Rockstar and not anything else.

As for me I'll probably forget about the game and pick it up for $10 like I did with GTA V. If the devs are going to treat my platform as low priority I'm going to do the same to their game.

 

[ITISTIME]

That doesn't make any sense but also makes sense with Rockstar. That sucks.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

There are 1.1 billion PC gamers vs 611 million console gamers. Technically speaking the PC is worth far more than any single console

Your pretty much agreed with my original point.

It doesnt matter than the pc gaming market is worth far more. R* arent here to drive hardware sales.

There are also far more system configurations that the developers have to optimise the game for (1.1billion different hardware combinations) where as consoles come in 2 or 3 different versions. A base version with lesser hardware than a pro version with more powerful upgraded hardware and maybe a 3rd version which can be a hardware refresh of one of the two units -- this is of course ignoring all the different special or limited edition units where the differences to standard units are purely cosmetic.


Whats more difficult? Cooking for a group with a billion allergy issues or cooking for a group with ONE allergy issue?

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

Cue disaster of a PC port, like GTA4 was.

 

[Imouto]

There are 1.1 billion PC gamers vs 611 million console gamers. Technically speaking the PC is worth far more than any single console.

Mind you it's not like releasing on PC and console at the same time is something rare. The vast majority of AAA games are able to. This is just an example of Rockstar being Rockstar and not anything else.

As for me I'll probably forget about the game and pick it up for $10 like I did with GTA V. If the devs are going to treat my platform as low priority I'm going to do the same to their game.

The thing is, they probably have a much, much better deal with Sony and Microsoft than they do with Valve or the projected sales for their launcher are simply far worse. Other AAA games are not GTA, this a once in a decade (or more) event.

 

[Easo]

Yeah, I am not buying a console for a game, not even this one.

 

[Fluffmeister]

So realistically it will be three years before we get this Florida simulator.... I'll cope

 

[Totally]

So sad, there will be no DLSS™ and RTX™ at launch.
This game will be very ugly...

What? I don't even.

 

[jallenlabs]

Guess they dont want my money. Ill spend it on something else. Their loss.

 

[Steevo]

Does anybody care about another GTA release that isn't a 14 year-old boy?

As a 43 year old I want to play it. Someone bought me GTA5 instead of me waiting for a sale. I still have RDR2 to play, might keep me busy for a couple years with starfield

 

[evernessince]

Whats more difficult? Cooking for a group with a billion allergy issues or cooking for a group with ONE allergy issue?

This is a bad analogy for multiple reasons. 1, Different PC configurations are far more akin to different toppings on a burger where 90% of the work is going to be the same. It's that last 10% that changes only. 2. Cooking for allergies requires you have dedicated prep surfaces to avoid cross contamination (assuming you are cooking in a kitchen that serves food that contains any of the top allergens). When it comes to specific PC configurations, you aren't doing anything that analogous to that. In fact individual configurations are not being optimized for, specific tiers are being optimized for. Hence why it's not a very good comparison, rockstar doesn't have to cook up a configuration for each and every PC config. Ironically chefs do have to do that for each person though, that's an underpaid job IMO.

In addition, how hard it is to cook for certain allergens depends heavily on the kitchen and chef. I've lived with severe food issues my entire life so cooking for any allergy including peanut, Soy, celiac, milk, ect would be simple because I both have the receipes and know substitutions. Any chef worth their salt is going to be able to sub in ingredients to accomodate allergies on the spot.

We are all aware that PC is harder to optimize for but that doesn't change the fact that Rockstar is more an outlier in terms of their release candence than an indicator of a fact of the market. Thousands of other AAA PC games released to date have all been optimized on PC just fine.

 

[qlum]

Interesting / a shame to see this is still the case The market has shifted quite a bit towards the pc in general, that being said it's nothing new, they have delayed the pc version since gta III. Let's at least hope it's going to be a good port that svales well.

 

[RamiHaidafy]

Well no money from PC gamers to Rockstar then

That doesn't make any sense but also makes sense with Rockstar. That sucks.

Yeah, I am not buying a console for a game, not even this one.

As if it matters to Rockstar. PC users made up only 2% of GTA V sales.

 

[vandaminator]

No GTA was simultaneus launched on consoles and PC. I dont know why were you expecting diferent

 

[evernessince]

As if it matters to Rockstar. PC users made up only 2% of GTA V sales.
View attachment 324276

I looked up info on this chart and found the source article: https://gamecloud-ltd.com/game-success-story-gta/

No source is provided for this chart's data. I googled for the data and could not find it anywhere so I have no idea where their data comes from. The chart was published in 2020 (not stated in the article itself for some reason) so it isn't up to date. Important as there was an explosion of GTA V Online PC private servers. Let's say we take the chart at face value despite not knowing the source, you can't say PC sales wouldn't be better if it released at the same time or close to the console release date. The 2 year release date gap is going to have an impact, just what that might be is hard to say but only 2.1% sales for PC seems incorrect irregardless.

 

[Steevo]

Steam shows 1.5 million PC reviews of GTA5 and 25.8 million copies sold.

 

[Lew Zealand]

As if it matters to Rockstar. PC users made up only 2% of GTA V sales.
View attachment 324276

This place claims 25.8M copies sold on Steam alone which is roughly 10% of total sales, suggesting that pie chart is completely wrong.

Video Game Insights - Games industry data and analysis

VG Insights is for developers, publishers and anyone interested in video game market research. Providing 50+ datapoints per game for over 50,000 games!

vginsights.com

Still, that means targeting ~90% of your userbase on a handful of platforms for the initial release is smart planning.

 

[RamiHaidafy]

This place claims 25.8M copies sold on Steam alone which is roughly 10% of total sales, suggesting that pie chart is completely wrong.

To be fair we don't know when the data in the chart was captured. It could have been accurate for its time.

Regardless, PC market share has almost always lagged behind console, by significant margins. EA at one point dropped FIFA to "legacy" status on PC while consoles got the full treatment. That's how little PC means to devs who target multiple platforms.

 

[Tomgang]

Nothing new in this. It has been like this since at least GTA 3. First comimg to consoles and then later for pc.
So since it´s first in 2025 it comes out and the last two gta games first came out to pc a year or longer time after.
Us pc gamers will first get the game sometime in 2026 or 2027, depending on when in 2025 it comes to consoles.

 

[qlum]

Another thing to note is pc sales are also affected by epic games giving away the game at some point, this dampens sales a bit from that point onward.

 

[Gameslove]

PC gamers are waiting a Crysis 4.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

This is a bad analogy for multiple reasons. 1, Different PC configurations are far more akin to different toppings on a burger where 90% of the work is going to be the same. It's that last 10% that changes only. 2. Cooking for allergies requires you have dedicated prep surfaces to avoid cross contamination (assuming you are cooking in a kitchen that serves food that contains any of the top allergens). When it comes to specific PC configurations, you aren't doing anything that analogous to that. In fact individual configurations are not being optimized for, specific tiers are being optimized for. Hence why it's not a very good comparison, rockstar doesn't have to cook up a configuration for each and every PC config. Ironically chefs do have to do that for each person though, that's an underpaid job IMO.

In addition, how hard it is to cook for certain allergens depends heavily on the kitchen and chef. I've lived with severe food issues my entire life so cooking for any allergy including peanut, Soy, celiac, milk, ect would be simple because I both have the receipes and know substitutions. Any chef worth their salt is going to be able to sub in ingredients to accomodate allergies on the spot.

We are all aware that PC is harder to optimize for but that doesn't change the fact that Rockstar is more an outlier in terms of their release candence than an indicator of a fact of the market. Thousands of other AAA PC games released to date have all been optimized on PC just fine.

I think its the perfect analogy. Because the long and short of it is *CATERING*. And there is a lot more to do for the PC market then console market where developers can optimise for a set cookie cutter template rather than have to dance around issues with the billions of hardware combinations and which setups might have the most issues with running the game.

As for AAA PC games being optimised. I dont recall any good AAA game in the last decade that have been released 'Just fine' optimised state for PC. Many titles were released in a half-finished mess when its clear that it needed more time in the oven but that is how AAA publishers do. Release it half baked to sell a few million copies then a year or two down the line have the game be a complete game and experience, all tweaked and fully optimised. There might be the odd one or two games who are the outliers but those are so few and far between. Games like Baldur's Gate 3. The Uncharted series...

So I dont know how you come to the opinion that AAA PC games have been released in a great state. Even the Witcher games needed a little work after they were released.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Figured as much, would've been rather surprising if they did a simultaneous launch. What's wild is this trailer is the equivalent of the very first GTA V trailer, shown on ps3/360. That's where this is at with quality. It looks good to us at the moment but it will get much better. Current consoles will have been out for 5 years by the time this releases.

 

[Vya Domus]

Honestly it's better to get an actual polished PC port

Come on, we both know that's cope.

GTA 5 was a mind numbingly effective money machine, Rockstar made literal billions in profit, they could 100% make a PC port that's polished enough on release, they specifically choose not to on purpose in order to maximize profits. That's a well known strategy that they use.

 

[noel_fs]

How many versions of the Xbox one exist? How many versions of the PS4 or PS5 exist? Now how many computers with completely different hardware configurations and combinations exist compared to those consoles?

It sucks but there is a reason why developers develop games from the ground up for console first then port to PC rather than the reverse and its even more inherently so since console gamers make up the biggest share of the market compared to PC gamers.

Its not as simple as slapping an OS on stuff and saying it should have cross compatibility. Games still need to be optimised for certain hardware configurations and its easier and quicker to do it for console than pc when nobody knows or will know what the hell you are running under the hood.

There is basically just 3 hardware configurations on pc, Nvidia, AMD and Intel, and consoles already use AMD so actually you could say there is 2 added architectures they would have to optimize for.

There is no such thing as porting nowdays, both consoles and computers are using same architectures on both cpu and gpu. An Xbox Series X/S is essentially a glorified computer.

The only reason to do this is greed, fear of piracy or both.