The company Take-Two Interactive has finally explained why Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) will not immediately receive a PC version, when it is released in November this year. The decision caused great disappointment among PC gamers, especially after years of waiting for a new GTA generation.
The CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, during a conversation with Bloomberg, explained that Rockstar traditionally develops games for consoles first because that is where the majority of the traditional audience is located.
Rockstar is again prioritizing GTA 6 on consoles, ahead of the PC platform
According to him, the company’s strategy for years has been based on PlayStation and Xbox users getting the best possible experience first, while the PC version arrives later after additional optimization and hardware adaptation to a much more complex platform.
This practically means that Rockstar is repeating the same model that it used with titles like GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 and the Max Payne series. All of those games came to consoles first, while the PC versions came out months or even years later.
Rockstar uses the extra time to improve graphics, optimize performance and add advanced technical options that the PC platform allows. It was Red Dead Redemption 2, after its arrival on computers, that received a visibly better image display and more advanced graphic effects than the versions for gaming consoles.
However, the market today is no longer the same as it was ten years ago. The PC gaming sector continues to grow strongly, while the lines between consoles and PCs are increasingly blurred. Microsoft is very aggressively connecting the Xbox and Windows ecosystem, while Steam and Valve are further pushing the PC platform towards the living room and console experience.
For this reason, some analysts believe that such a decision could cause a counter-effect and encourage dissatisfaction among the million-strong PC audience, which now represents one of the key segments of the gaming industry.
On the other hand, there is also the possibility that the console exclusive will further boost sales of Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Xbox series of consoles during the holiday season.
GTA 6 is officially released on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X, while the date of the PC version is still unknown, reports Reddit.