Grand Theft Auto 6 did not get a PC launch date together with its trailer. Historic precedent is not promising both, since Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2’s port took 13 months to make the bounce, whereas GTA 5 took a whopping 19.
On the time of writing, although, GTA 5 is quantity 10 on the highest sellers record of Steam. A part of that is resulting from GTA 6 hype, certain, 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 when it comes to 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 fundamental explanation why a PC port will take so lengthy to come back out after a console launch is as a result of the builders wish to make [the game] as greatest as potential,” 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 large vendor … so, what the developer would do is focus all their vitality 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 boundaries … the PC model is form of the model that is within the background … it isn’t 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 capsule 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 obtainable at this time.”
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. When you’ve been PC gaming for any period of time, you know the way rapidly {hardware} will get outdated.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 most effective components obtainable would not precisely monitor. Your median participant is not going to have the most effective {hardware}. High-of-the-line stuff is goddamn costly.
“It is completely different structure and parts, they should accommodate for all these various things that may occur,” York factors out—which is true. With consoles, devs can design their video games primarily based on a selected set of {hardware}. That does not essentially cease console video games having optimisation points, nevertheless it does slender down the margin of error. “They should check the sport extra on PC … there’s quite a lot of issues that may go incorrect while you launch that PC port.”
York goes on to say that “it is exhausting to try this as a developer, as a result of the staff is not sufficiently big”—which, maintain up. That is Rockstar we’re speaking about, proper?
I do wish to be honest right here and say that builders themselves do not get to decide on the dimensions of their groups or the funds allotted to them. York (and Rockstar’s present devs) would possibly need extra sources 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 individuals engaged on GTA 5, and practically 2,000 on Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2. Take-Two Interactive (which owns Rockstar Video games) had a 2023 internet 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 certain the truth is extra sophisticated—however I would be prepared to guess that Take-Two has the cash to fund a PC port if it actually wished to.
In the end, York can solely clarify why a PC port is not occurring from a developer’s standpoint, so I respect 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 immediately.
I wager it is the identical because it ever was—cash and status. The studio is sufficiently big and the sport is sufficiently big that it is aware of individuals can wait a yr, and it will nonetheless make financial institution on the PC model.
