PC gamers will most likely have to attend even longer for Grand Theft Auto VI

PC gamers will possible have to attend a bit longer than their console counterparts to play the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI. In a press launch accompanying final evening’s earlier-than-scheduled trailer launch, Rockstar particularly says it’s “proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto VI is coming to PlayStation 5 laptop leisure methods and Xbox Sequence X|S video games and leisure methods in 2025.”

The specific lack of any instant PC launch plans in that assertion should not be a shock to longtime Rockstar Video games watchers. Positive, the 2D, top-down Grand Theft Auto really launched on Home windows and MS-DOS(!) just a few months earlier than the extra fashionable port to PlayStation in 1998. And the sport’s 1999 sequel debuted on PlayStation and Home windows on the identical day.

Since 2000, although, Rockstar has clearly prioritized its console releases over any PC ports. When one in every of Rockstar’s console video games is launched on the PC, the port tends to come back anyplace from 5 months to over two full years after the primary console launch, based on an Ars evaluation. Even Grand Theft Auto DLC like “The Misplaced and the Damned” and “The Ballad of Homosexual Tony” hit the PC properly after their console launches—420 days and 166 days, respectively.

The one exceptions we may discover to this development had been the primary two Max Payne video games, which launched on Home windows just a few weeks earlier than their console ports within the early ’00s. By 2012, although, that development had flipped for the discharge of Max Payne 3, which got here to PC two weeks after consoles.

Hurry up and wait

With regards to Grand Theft Auto‘s PC ports particularly, Rockstar was at the least constant for some time. The primary 4 main 3D GTA releases (together with Vice Metropolis and San Andreas) all hit PC between 196 and 224 days after their console launch. That remarkably tight six- to eight-month window throughout a number of releases prompt Rockstar had its PC porting pipeline (and planning) all the way down to one thing of a science.

Then got here Grand Theft Auto V, which took a full 19 months to maneuver from consoles to the PC. That eventual Home windows launch in April of 2015 got here after a number of anticipated launch dates and official delays for the PC model, together with one delay that was introduced simply 14 days earlier than a deliberate January 27, 2015, launch.

The look ahead to a PC model of GTA V could have been so lengthy partly as a result of Rockstar was extra targeted on ports to different consoles. The Xbox One and PS4 variations of the sport got here out in November of 2014, about 14 months after the preliminary PS3 and Xbox 360 releases. The truth is, the PC port was initially alleged to launch on the identical day as these “next-gen” console upgrades. However whereas the brand new console ports hit their initially introduced launch targets, PC gamers needed to wait a further six months to get their fingers on the sport.

That sort of cross-generational console porting most likely will not be as a lot of a direct problem for GTA VI. The PS3 and Xbox 360 had been pushing 7 and eight years outdated, respectively, when GTA V first launched on these ageing consoles. The PS5 and Xbox Sequence S/X, alternatively, will solely be about 5 years outdated if GTA VI hits its deliberate 2025 launch.

After all, there may be one different at present unannounced console that may must issue into these 2025 launch plans. Nintendo’s long-rumored Change follow-up is broadly anticipated to launch subsequent yr and can be rumored to have considerably extra {hardware} horsepower than the unique Change.

That might imply a midway respectable port of Grand Theft Auto VI may work on the console with out the necessity for the bizarre streaming options or important graphical downgrades that characterize some present Change ports. And earlier than you scoff on the outdated notion {that a} family-friendly Nintendo system may not be a great match for a Grand Theft Auto sport, notice {that a} port of the primary three 3D titles within the collection hit the Change in 2021.

For now, although, Nintendo and PC gamers are left ready for any official phrase that Rockstar Video games is contemplating them for the following main Grand Theft Auto launch.