Mike York, a former Rockstar employee who has worked on both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, has tried to explain why GTA6 cannot come out on PC alongside its console versions. And his explanation is what everyone has already predicted. A pile of mere excuses and nothing more.
York claims that Rockstar needs more time to polish the PC version because there are a lot of different PC configs in comparison to consoles. He also claimed that since the PC is more powerful, it will allow Rockstar to add more stuff to it.
Let’s start with the first part of this. A few days ago, Ubisoft released Avatar: Frontier of Pandora on multiple platforms. This game features a huge world to explore, is one of the best-looking games, and runs incredibly well on PC. Let that sink in. Ubisoft can release a polished game on consoles and the PC but somehow Rockstar can’t?
Hell, here is a better example. Earlier this year, Deep Silver released Dead Island 2. Dead Island 2 was in development hell for a few years. However, Dambuster Studios was able to develop old-gen and current-gen versions of it. And yes, the PC version came out alongside its console cousins. Dambuster basically developed five versions simultaneously. You’re telling me that Rockstar, with all its resources, can’t compete with Dambuster? Come oooooooon.
As for Rockstar adding new features to the PC version… what happened to the Ray Tracing effects of GTA5? Why they aren’t available on PC? PCs are more powerful than consoles yet we don’t have Ray Tracing. What’s the excuse for that? Riiiiiiiiiiight.
And I get it. York is being a diplomate here, trying to praise his former studio. After all, he won’t bite the hand that fed him. However, we’re so fed up with PR statements and lies. No dear York, Rockstar is not delaying the game on PC to further polish it. They’re delaying it so that they can increase their revenue. They are delaying it to have another marketing campaign in two years. Because they know people will double dip. That’s the truth, whether you like it or not.
So dear devs, if you don’t want us to call out on your lies, then please keep your mouth shut. We all know how things work. The excuse for the “complicated PC configs” would fly in the 90s. It’s not valid in today’s age though. A lot of smaller studios have developed and released games on consoles and PC, and they run great on PC. If those studios can, then surely Rockstar can. Unless there is another reason preventing them. And we all know that reason (money money money money).
Finally, don’t even dare to bring up the games that came out this year on PC with performance issues. These games were EVEN WORSE on consoles. Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Immortals of Aveum and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum were awful on PS5 and Xbox Series X at launch. So, you can’t use them as examples. Not when their console versions look and run worse than their PC versions!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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