There’s been a lot of discussion since the PlayStation 5 Pro’s reveal, from further speculation about its specs (especially since other things from earlier reports line up) to who it’s really for. Analysts predict it will sell as well as the PS4 Pro, with Sony Interactive’s Hideaki Nishino coincidentally telling Nikkei that it comprised about 20 percent of the PS4’s total lifetime sales (instead of the 15 percent some were throwing out).
However, one of the most back-and-forth discussions is actually something that was debated for months before the PS5 Pro’s official reveal: Will Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6 run at 60 frames per second on the console?
Why GTA 6? Not only is it the most anticipated game of next year among fans, but perhaps the industry as a whole. Speaking to GamesIndustry, Circana’s Mat Piscatella said there’s “probably never been a more important thing to ever release in the industry.” Ignore that Grand Theft Auto 5 shipped about 200 million units – the reveal trailer for GTA 6 has a whopping 209 million views in about nine months. To say that the hype is palpable would be an understatement.
However, as with hype, there will also be rampant speculation, good and bad, over how it will look, whether the current generation of consoles can handle it, etc. CNET’s preview of how the Pro’s CPU is the same Ryzen Zen 2 as the base console further feeds into reports that the only difference is a “High CPU Frequency Mode” to boost the clock speed up to 3.85 GHz from 3.5 GHz. A somewhat disappointing 10 percent increase, if true. Sony hasn’t officially confirmed or denied this, even if other aspects of the leaks have been true.
The CPU is a major factor because open-world titles like, say, Grand Theft Auto 5, leverage it in different ways, like its population density and variety. Reducing these, among other things, can help improve PC performance. As such, if the PS5 Pro’s CPU isn’t a tremendous upgrade over the base version, then Grand Theft Auto 6 clearly won’t run at 60 FPS on the console.
Cue comments about how arrogant Sony is back and the PS5 Pro is dead on arrival. Now, the Pro has some issues, like the absurd pricing and demanding additional money for a disc drive and vertical stand. Don’t even get me started on how much Europe and Australia must pay.
The problem with the whole argument about GTA 6 not running at 60 FPS is that it doesn’t make much sense for several reasons.
Firstly, there’s an absolute lack of information for the title. You could argue that the reveal trailer is all real-time and in-game (and it very well may be, given how Rockstar does things), but we haven’t seen how it plays. What improvements have been made to driving? Are the dashboards of the various vehicles realistic enough? How does the movement look? Are the shooting mechanics different? How extensive is the world design? Can we enter all the buildings we’ve seen thus far? What new activities can we look forward to?
Rockstar has been tight-lipped about everything, forget performance. We don’t even know how it’s going to run on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, forget diving into options on the PS5 Pro.
If you want to assume anything, Grand Theft Auto 5 is a good place to start. It has three graphical modes on PS5: Fidelity, Performance and Performance RT. There is a precedent for the developer implementing different modes on more powerful hardware. However, remember that it was originally released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 before coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC, and then the current-gen consoles.
It’s had time to optimize and improve performance for the latest hardware, and while you could argue about how much of that work will translate to GTA 6, it’s the precedent more than anything. Rockstar knows that fans want to experience their games in 60 FPS. How much priority is it over ensuring the game runs well on current-gen hardware? Probably less so, but your guess is as good as mine.
Of course, this isn’t just the developer’s precedent. Console lead architect Mark Cerny talked about how 75 percent of PS5 players opted for Performance mode when playing games. He then outlined how the PS5 Pro would close the divide between Performance and Fidelity modes.
The goal is for the player to have the best of both worlds – image quality and details alongside a higher frame rate. However, he didn’t rule out titles having different graphical modes on PS5 Pro. In fact, CNET’s preview confirmed there will be, with Gran Turismo 7 having an 8K resolution mode and 4K/60 FPS mode with advanced ray tracing.
Whether other open-world titles will follow suit and attempt to hit the coveted 4K/60 FPS standard is unknown because it varies between developers. It ultimately depends on how they optimise their titles for the Pro. The same goes for Grand Theft Auto 6, which uses the PS5 as a base. Regardless, if there’s an opportunity to add a 60 FPS mode, even if it means dialling down some details, then the development team is probably looking into it.
For all we know, Rockstar has been aware for months that the PS5 Pro has been in the works. After all, the initially leaked specs originated from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Developer Network, which only licensed developers, publishers, and middleware companies can view. Even if it’s not among those companies, you can bet that they’re in the know and have been considering what to do with the hardware, even if there aren’t concrete plans at this stage.
The real question is whether it can have it ready by the game’s launch. Grand Theft Auto 6 is slated for 2025 – over a year off. While this leaves plenty of time for optimization, there are several other aspects it needs to polish and get ready. Once again, we’ve seen nothing beyond the initial reveal trailer. A delay is always possible, but it remains to be seen if the developer or parent company Take-Two Interactive would go to that extent, especially if its main install base is on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Of course, when it eventually does release, there may likely be other arguments, especially if it doesn’t run at 4K/60 FPS with ray tracing enabled at full Ultra details on the Pro. Thus begins another cycle of discussion as to whether it can achieve that on the PS6 or, failing that, the PS6 Pro. Round and round and round we go.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s a worthwhile discussion to have, and fans should know all of this before dropping $700 minimum on new hardware. However, until we possess all of the facts, like the PS5 Pro’s specs and Rockstar’s plans for the hardware, if any, we can only speculate.
Thankfully, we can all agree on two things: Grand Theft Auto 6 looks amazing even if we need to see more, and the PS5 Pro’s pricing, regardless of specifications, is terrible. And for now, at least in terms of tangible facts, that’s enough.