The "Grand Theft Auto 6" trailer broke the internet in 2023, but since then, Rockstar has largely remained silent while rumors about the game's release window have flourished. Now, thanks to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, we finally have a clearer idea of what to expect.
Category
š®ļø
GamingTranscript
00:00The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer broke the internet in 2023, but since then, Rockstar has largely
00:06remained silent while rumors about the game's release window have flourished.
00:10Now thanks to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, we finally have a clear idea of what
00:15to expect.
00:16Unfortunately, the parent company behind Rockstar Games has definitively confirmed one of the
00:20biggest rumors ā GTA 6 won't be coming to PC right away.
00:25Zelnick told IGN,
00:27With regard to others in our lineup, we don't always go across all platforms simultaneously.
00:31Historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other
00:36platforms.
00:37IGN noted that Zelnick was most definitely referring to GTA 6 here.
00:41Worse, he did not say how long fans can expect to wait between the release of GTA 6 on Xbox
00:46and PlayStation and its arrival on PC.
00:48Do you know why you're here?
00:50Bad luck, I guess.
00:51On a more positive note, Zelnick seems confident that Rockstar is on track to release the game
00:55sometime in 2025, though he didn't get any more specific about a potential release date.
01:02Zelnick also believes that GTA 6 will be a console seller, despite some extremely volatile
01:06conditions in the gaming market.
01:08There's enormous anticipation both inside our company and in the marketplace as a whole.
01:13We couldn't be more excited.
01:15This GTA 6 update isn't everything gamers want, but after such a prolonged silence,
01:20there's still a welcome bit of communication from the company behind the game.
01:23Fans have been waiting more than a decade for GTA 6, so there's no doubt that the game's
01:27release is going to be one of the biggest events in entertainment history.
01:31Despite that, there are some larger forces that could put a damper on the GTA 6 debut.
01:36Game prices could skyrocket across the industry in the near future, particularly if new tariffs
01:40on foreign goods are implemented by the United States.
01:44Console prices could also see a sharp increase, right as companies are hoping GTA 6 will move
01:48more consoles.
01:50Speaking with IGN, Zelnick explained that he's still optimistic that the enthusiasm
01:54for GTA 6 and other upcoming games will help drive sales, even if prices rise throughout
01:592025.
02:00I don't think tariffs are going to be our friend, but I think there will be a meaningful
02:04uptick in console sales in 2025 because of the release schedule, so I'm not concerned
02:09about that.
02:10In other words, it sounds like Rockstar is expecting GTA 6 to be a big holiday item.
02:15Zelnick, who's previously made concerning comments about the potentially high retail
02:19price of GTA 6, didn't specify if new tariffs will immediately affect the price of the game.
02:24He said that, instead of worrying about tariffs, he's thinking about how the expanding base
02:29of PC gamers is going to affect the industry.
02:31Of course, that makes Rockstar's approach with the PC release of GTA 6 even more confusing.
02:36Zelnick told IGN that he expects around 40 percent of the total sales of GTA 6 to come
02:41from PC players.
02:43That's left many gamers wondering why Rockstar isn't prioritizing a simultaneous console-PC
02:47release.
02:49Fans have been thinking about the PC release issue even before Zelnick confirmed their
02:52worst suspicions, and we may have already received an answer.
02:55In October 2024, a former GTA developer posted on X,
02:59"...I would think doing a simultaneous release is also risky.
03:02The PC version tends to have a bunch of technical issues because of all the different configurations.
03:07These issues may give the game a reputation for being buggy."
03:10The developer argued that a buggy PC release could taint the entire game's reputation,
03:15and imagined that Rockstar was splitting up the releases to focus on perfecting the
03:18game on every platform.
03:20This concern makes total sense, especially when one remembers the backlash to other broken
03:24PC ports of the past, such as The Last of Us Part I and Batman Arkham Knight.
03:29That line of reasoning led the former developer to a very unfortunate prediction, that the
03:34PC version of GTA 6 might not arrive until 2027.
03:38This is only an educated guess, however.
03:40It's worth noting that these kinds of gaps aren't unheard of for Rockstar.
03:44Red Dead Redemption 2 arrived on PC a year after consoles, while GTA 5 took a solid 19
03:49months.
03:50Still, even without confirmation of a final release date or price, the update from Zelnik
03:54is still somewhat reassuring.
03:56The game is on track for release, for some platforms, in 2025, and everyone at Rockstar
04:01is working to make sure that it lives up to the hype.