Take-Two Interactive, the owners of Rockstar, have finally talked about the PC version of GTA 6, and the lack of its announcement or release date so far. The first trailer for the game came out in December 2023 and confirmed a release window of 2025, but only for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, no PC.
In a recent interview at a conference, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, was asked if the decision not to announce the PC version of GTA 6 was set in stone, and that will it be confirmed at a later date. Zelnick replied with a non-answer that essentially said that an announcement may or may not be planned for the PC edition of GTA 6 in the near future. But this tells us a lot more than it may seem.
Zelnick also said that Rockstar would make more announcements as the release date of GTA 6 gets closer and that the company’s strategy is currently focusing on where most of the consumers are focused, which means consoles only.
If we look at the history of Rockstar’s releases like Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5, LA Noire, and even the most recent Red Dead Redemption 2, the company always releases its games on consoles first, and then after a year or two, moves on to PC.
Why Delay the PC Release in the First Place?
The reason for this is twofold. For one, Rockstar will have a safer time releasing it on consoles where the majority of players are, and the hardware is the same across the board. Releasing games on PC requires a lot more optimization because of the indefinite number of hardware combinations. If both PC and console versions were to be released together, the release date of GTA 6 would be delayed by quite a bit.
The second reason is that once a game is available on consoles only, people with both PCs and consoles will get it at launch. And then years down the road, once the PC version comes out, it will result in duplicate sales by people who already own the game on a console and prefer the PC experience for modding, etc.
Rockstar has confirmed that GTA 6 is coming out in Autumn / Fall 2025, and the company is confident about making the release window.
