PC gamers were probably disheartened to learn that, much like all previous Rockstar games, Grand Theft Auto 6 would be arriving a little later on Windows. But according to a former Rockstar developer, the decision to go console-first mostly has to do with marketing.
According to former Rockstar developer Mike York (who’s previously worked on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 and discussed this in a YouTube video) the company always prioritizes “what sells.”
“One of the main things I want to touch on is that the reason why a PC port comes later and not the first thing that comes out is because they want to prioritize what sells,” he explained. “Most of the time, especially in the past, PlayStation was the big seller. So what the developer would do is they would focus all their energy on making sure the PlayStation port and the PlayStation game worked really well.
“Then they would kind of port to the Xbox —usually they’d do it at the same time. When I was working over on GTA 5, for instance, we were concentrating on the PS3 and the Xbox at the time. But we were mainly pushing the PS3 to the limit because the PS3 was kind of better hardware at the time to use memory and different things.”
Already breaking the record for the fastest trailer in any entertainment medium to rack up 100 million views, it’s safe to assume that GTA 6 will be shattering the sales charts upon release in a way that will make its predecessor — the second best-selling video game of all time — look like a modest success.
If sales have historically leaned towards consoles, then Rockstar might be more likely to focus on those platforms. While that might come off as callous to PC enthusiasts, Mike further explains that it’s one of the reasons why Rockstar games are so polished, regardless of the platform.
Prioritizing platforms makes for a more convenient launch
That being said, there’s a silver lining to this way of thinking. There have been some broken PC ports released this last year, like The Last of Us and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Rockstar taking some extra time to work on the PC version might hopefully avoid the same pitfall other companies ran into.
Besides, as York explains it, this gives Rockstar the chance to really push the limits of its tech with the PC version. “For instance, they might go into a scene and go, ‘Oh, we’re on PC now, we have a little bit more memory, we can add some fog into here like we always wanted to, but it was too much for the console.’ They can do a lot of different things like adding more characters, they can populate better foliage.”
Knowing PC gamers, they probably appreciate the gesture.
Jonathan Wright
A freelance contributor, Jonathan has been writing about the entertainment industry for the majority of his adult life. When he isn’t busy with that, you can probably find him reading a fantasy book or playing the latest game, and even occasionally squeezing in another playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy for the umpteenth time. As an avid RPG player, Jonathan possibly sees every real-life interaction like a dialogue tree, so don’t mind it if he takes a bit of time to choose the right option.
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