Rockstar Games’ games usually tend to skip simultaneous PC releases when initially coming out for consoles. This has remained true for several games from the developer’s portfolio, ranging from Grand Theft Auto 4 to Grand Theft Auto 5 and from Red Dead Redemption to Red Dead Redemption 2. In fact, Rockstar launched Red Dead Redemption 1 on PC only last month, after fourteen long years (you can read our review of the PC version here).
Unfortunately, this practice will continue with the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6. with the company opting opting to launch it only on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5. The lack of a day one PC version release is disappointing for many, especially in an age where almost every major AAA title launches on PC digital platforms day one and alongside their console counterparts. Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive, however, do not underestimate the value of PC as a platform, and the audience that its games find on it.
In a recent earnings call, Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that the PC platform is important for them and developing support for it is not complicated.
“If one platform diminishes in value, there’s always another one. So, we’re seeing great growth in PC right now, for example. And I have been able to view that open formats would continue to grow. PC is an open format. I do think PC will continue to be a more and more important part of the console business going forward, and that isn’t complicated for us to support at all,” Zelnick stated (via VGC).
“So, the bottom line is we are selective about which platforms we support,” he added.
To be clear, Zelnick’s statements reflect Take-Two’s policy on PC releases in general and not specific to GTA 6. Obviously, they won’t abandon gaming’s biggest and largest platform, but given Rockstar’s erratic record with PC releases in the last decade or so, it doesn’t inspire much confidence amongst GTA PC players as far as day and date releases are concerned.
A PC version of GTA 6 version will likely happen at some point, but there’s no telling how long the wait for it will be. To give you a bit of history, Bully launched on consoles in October 2006 followed by a PC release, two years later, in 2008. Grand Theft Auto 4 released PS3 and Xbox 360 in April of 2008. The PC version saw release a few months later in December. Grand Theft Auto 5‘s initial release was back in September 2013 followed by a PC release almost two years later in April 2015. Rockstar’s most recent game, Red Dead Redemption 2 launched on PS4 and Xbox One in October 2018, followed by a PC release in 2019. Games like Midnight Club: Los Angeles didn’t see a PC version released at all, while Red Dead Redemption 1 had to wait for its PC port for nearly a decade and a half.
It’s clear that in the case of Rockstar and their games, a PC version is not a priority. However, in case of its other labels (like 2K), players can expect Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country to launch day one on PC.
Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in Fall of 2025 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
