Following rumors about Xbox having seemingly secured an exclusive deal with Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive to make Grand Theft Auto 6 available through Xbox’s cloud streaming services, the company’s chief strategist, Matthew Ball, has offered some clarification. In a social media post, Ball said that the company is simply excited to release Grand Theft Auto 6 on Xbox Series X/S, and that there are no exclusive streaming rights.
The prospect of Grand Theft Auto 6 being available through cloud streaming was an exciting one, especially for PC gamers, since Rockstar Games hasn’t yet confirmed any release date for the platforms. If it were to be made available through cloud streaming, the Xbox Series X/S version of GTA 6 could have ended up being the only way for PC players to experience the game until a native port is released. For now, however, it looks like PC players will simply have to wait for over a year until an inevitable port is released, going by Rockstar’s history with games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
“While the excitement for GTAVI and Xbox is great to see, it has also led to some misreporting. We are looking forward to launching GTAVI on Xbox November 19, though the game will not be streaming exclusively or to PC.”
A report from last month indicated that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 had been heavily skewed towards the PS5 version, resulting in “ringing yet more alarm bells” at Xbox. According to The Verge’s Tom Warren, the company was seemingly looking into ways to boost pre-order sales on its own consoles. Responding to this, however, Ball said that the company has been “very happy” with pre-orders on Xbox so far.
“Tom, we are very happy with GTA VI pre-orders. The title is breaking records for Xbox; we expect even more records will be broken throughout the fall, and our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market.”
Interestingly, Ball’s response didn’t specifically deny the idea that pre-order figures on PS5 might have been heavily outperforming those on Xbox Series X/S. Instead, he was more focused on the fact that the Xbox version’s pre-orders have been largely staying in line with the company’s overall position in the console market these days.
In the meantime, it looks like Grand Theft Auto 6 will be Rockstar’s most ambitious title yet, with all of the gameplay showcases in recent times revolving around how detailed the open-world game will be. It is also expected to cause a major boost in console sales across the board, with many new gamers entering the market just to play it.
Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida believes that, while it will take some time, another game will replicate the success seen by Grand Theft Auto 6. In an interview, Yoshida said that it might even end up being Grand Theft Auto 7 once Rockstar Games decides to work on a brand-new entry.
For more on Grand Theft Auto 6, check out 15 details that reveal the depth of Rockstar’s vision.
