Grand Theft Auto 6 did not get a PC launch date together with its trailer. Historic precedent is not promising both, since Pink Lifeless Redemption 2’s port took 13 months to make the soar, whereas GTA 5 took a whopping 19.
On the time of writing, although, GTA 5 is quantity 10 on the highest sellers listing of Steam. A part of that is because of GTA 6 hype, positive, however that is Grand Theft Auto we’re speaking about. I am prepared to guess it is offered like hotcakes on all platforms. Regardless of that, the PC has obtained the center baby remedy from Rockstar Video games, with GTA On-line lagging behind by way of key updates and a few main points with RDR2’s port on launch.
Mike York, who was an animator at Rockstar Video games between 2012 and 2017 engaged on each GTA 5 and RDR2, has an inkling to why that’s. “One of many primary the explanation why a PC port will take so lengthy to return out after a console launch is as a result of the builders wish to make [the game] as greatest as attainable,” York explains on his YouTube Channel, York Reacts.
So it is about high quality, then? Kinda. It is also about cash. “They wanna prioritise what sells. More often than not (particularly prior to now) PlayStation was the massive vendor … so, what the developer would do is focus all their power on ensuring the PlayStation port and the PlayStation recreation labored actually good.”
York mentions that when he was engaged on GTA 5, they had been centered on the PS3 and the Xbox 360 on the time, “we had been primarily pushing the PS3 to the bounds … the PC model is sort of the model that is within the background … it is not fairly polished, it is simply kinda feeding the opposite video games and making them work.”
York goes on to explain how Rockstar particularly has traditionally centered on the console model and labored backwards, which is a bitter tablet to swallow—even when it is true. As for the lengthy wait occasions? York says devs will use the port as a possibility to push the {hardware} additional. “They’re gonna optimise it for the most effective PC components which are out there as we speak.”
Increasing the scope of a recreation for higher {hardware} does make sense. GTA 5 for instance launched in 2013, about eight years after the Xbox 360 and 7 years after the PS3. For those who’ve been PC gaming for any period of time, you know the way rapidly {hardware} will get outdated. However the concept that studios optimise their video games for the greatest components out there does not precisely observe. Your median participant is not going to have the most effective {hardware}. Prime-of-the-line stuff is goddamn costly.
“It is completely different structure and elements, they need to accommodate for all these various things that may occur,” York factors out—which is true. With consoles, devs can design their video games based mostly on a selected set of {hardware}. That does not essentially cease console video games having optimisation points, however it does slim down the margin of error. “They should take a look at the sport extra on PC … there’s loads of issues that may go incorrect if you launch that PC port.”
York goes on to say that “it is laborious to try this as a developer, as a result of the staff is not large enough”—which, maintain up. That is Rockstar we’re speaking about, proper?
I do wish to be truthful right here and say that builders themselves do not get to decide on the dimensions of their groups or the price range allotted to them. York (and Rockstar’s present devs) may need extra assets to make a PC port, however they’re paid a wage by an organization to do a job. From York’s perspective, that is completely true.
However Rockstar had over 1,000 folks engaged on GTA 5, and almost 2,000 on Pink Lifeless Redemption 2. Take-Two Interactive (which owns Rockstar Video games) had a 2023 web income of $5.35 billion, and I really feel obligated to remind you {that a} billion is a thousand million. I haven’t got a head for enterprise, so I am positive the truth is extra difficult—however I would be prepared to guess that Take-Two has the cash to fund a PC port if it actually needed to.
In the end, York can solely clarify why a PC port is not taking place from a developer’s perspective, so I admire his perspective is restricted. However Rockstar Video games is not some fledgling indie firm, and smaller groups than Rockstar have launched video games to each platform straight away.
I wager it is the identical because it ever was—cash and status. The studio is large enough and the sport is large enough that it is aware of folks can wait a yr, and it will nonetheless make financial institution on the PC model.