An ex-Rockstar Games developer has shed light on the lack of a PC version of GTA VI at launch, and why the company prioritizes PlayStation.
In his latest video on his YouTube channel, former animator at Rockstar Games Mike York, who worked on GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, shared his thoughts on why no PC version of GTA VI was announced, and why the studio prioritizes the PlayStation platform.
York explained that the reason why a PC port of GTA VI will take some years to released after the console version is because the developers want to make it as best as possible, and they have to work out issues specific to that version. He mentioned that the reason why a PC port comes later and not at launch is because Rockstar Games wants to prioritize what sells most, and PlayStation has consistently been the top seller for prior GTA games. He added that the PlayStation version of previous GTA titles have sold more copies than any platform, and that “everybody’s playing PlayStation”.
According to York, the development team would, therefore, put focus all of its resources on making sure that the PlayStation version ran really well, and then they would port it to Xbox. He implied that the PC version is more of an afterthought, which is being developed in the “background”. He said that there’s always a PC version, but it’s not quite polished and is mainly there to help the other versions work.
He added that when focusing on the PC version, the development team would try to push new ideas. For instance, he explained that they may go into a scene and take advantage of the availability of more memory on the platform by adding in more characters or populate it with higher quality foliage. He highlighted the permutations of different hardware and architectures as another major reason behind the lack of a PC version of GTA games at launch.
York said that a complex game like GTA VI would, therefore, require extensive testing across various PC hardware configurations. Rockstar Games simply doesn’t have the manpower and resources to pull this off while simultaneously developing for consoles. As a result, the studio prioritizes what’s best for the company’s bottom line, and that’s the PlayStation platform.
