GTA 6 is shaping up to be the hottest console game launch of the year, but PC gamers won't be sharing in that fun. This is par for the course with developer Rockstar Games, as it has typically prioritized console versions of its games before porting them to PC, a strategy that one former employee says will result in a better port.
Former Rockstar Games producer John Ricchio explained to KiwiTalkz that while Rockstar had experimented with developing its games for PC, this ultimately caused problems down the line. "It's always better to start with the constraints and then extend," Ricchio said. "Because shrinking is a lot harder than extending. It's way harder to make your game performant than it is to just be like 'Oh, we've got extra room? Cool, we can deoptimize or make things more shiny.'"
Ricchio explained that Rockstar in the 2010s would often discuss where to focus its resources, as the studio had to deal with hardware limitations and other platform-specific issues. This approach wasn't the result of Rockstar having a platform bias, but a business decision that would make sense at the end of the day. Even with thousands of employees spread across the globe, Rockstar still has to likely prioritize where to utilize that talent in a game as ambitious as GTA 6, Ricchio added.
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick also spoke about the lack of GTA 6 on PC recently, pushing back against the theory that Sony's co-marketing deal with Rockstar Games is the reason why it'll launch on consoles first. In 2025, Zelnick said PC had become a more important platform than before, and a few years earlier, former Rockstar developer Mike York said Rockstar wants to "prioritize what sells."
Even without PC sales, GTA 6 is expected to sell 40 million copies and drive more than $3 billion in revenue during its first year. A new report from research firm Newzoo is making the bold claim that the game could reach between $3.3 billion and $5.2 billion in global sales in just its first week. For now, GTA 6 is still locked in for a November 19 launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and if you'd like to see how close it is, you can check out GameSpot's GTA 6 countdown clock to watch the seconds tick by.
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