Former Rockstar dev explains GTA6's missing PC release, calls it a matter of priorities
Former Rockstar developer Mike York has explained why GTA 6 isn't releasing on PC at launch.
After years of waiting, Rockstar gave us our first slice of GTA 6 last week with a new trailer. Soon after, the studio confirmed the game will release sometime in 2025 on both Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. At the time of writing, there is no word on a PC release window.
According to York, who worked on the likes of GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 during his time at Rockstar, a PC port of a big AAA games takes longer to come out than console because a studio has to «prioritise what sells».
«Most of the time, especially in the past, PlayStation was the big seller,» York explained. «PlayStation was 'The Console' to have. It sold more copies than any other console for the most part, everybody's playing PlayStation. So, what the developer would do, they would focus all their energy on making sure the PlayStation port and the PlayStation game worked really good, right?»
York recalled development on GTA 5, stating the team would work simultaneously on the PS3 and Xbox versions. However, the studio was «mainly pushing the PS3 to the limits» as this was the «better hardware» at that particular time.
«So, we put all our energy into that and optimising it the best we can for that console. Then, we kind of port that version to the Xbox kind of simultaneously,» York said.
But, where does that leave PC? According to the developer, the PC version is «in the background… running the two versions and building them».
York continued: «There's always a PC version of the game, but it's not polished and it's just kind of feeding the other games and making them work.»
The developer said when the studio gets the game to the best it can be on
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