We have an interesting new rumor about why Rockstar does not bring Grand Theft Auto games to PC first, or at least at the same time as it goes on consoles.
Grand Theft Auto Never Came To PC First?
This is not strictly true, but we’re going to explain this a bit. For those who don’t remember, the Grand Theft Auto games that preceded the PlayStation 2 were 2D games using a top-down perspective.
The very first game in the series, when it still used the name Race’n’Chase, was actually planned for MS-DOS, Windows 95, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64.
The original game was programmed for MS-DOS, and then ported to Windows. Both versions came out in November 1997. The PlayStation version then came out a month later. In spite of Rockstar’s intentions, the Saturn and Nintendo 64 versions never materialized.
Grand Theft Auto 2 then came out on both PlayStation and Windows, and then DreamCast a year later. But the dawn of 5th generation consoles brought new challenges for game development.
Why Rockstar Started Slowing Down On The Grand Theft Auto PC Ports
You may remember that Rockstar signed a timed exclusivity deal with Sony for Grand Theft Auto III, that changed the fortunes of their game franchise and the PlayStation 2.
But that wasn’t actually the reason they took a year to release the Windows version. To quote Dan Houser from an interview all the way back in 2002:
The months since the PS2 version came out haven’t been spent idling away time on a beach before rushing to finish a PC port in three weeks flat.
To do the PC version justice we had to take our time to make sure everything was right. The delay between versions is proof of the passion the team feel for the PC platform.
We have previously released PC and PSX versions of GTA simultaneously and believed both versions suffered slightly from a lack of attention to detail.
To make a game with this varied control systems, with this many textures and with this much to potentially go wrong and release it simultaneously on two platforms was not going to be possible.
Dan himself hasn’t been in Rockstar Games for years. But it looks like this has not changed for the studio at all.
Rockstar Still Puts Extra Work For PC
Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly shared his insight into this in a random conversation on Twitter:
It’s due to optimization, the reason Rockstar Games don’t release their games day 1 on PC is because they dont have the bandwidth to do it, there are so many more things to test with a PC release than consoles because of all the different variables.
… Well whether you believe it or not is up to you but every single dev that i have spoken to there and former Rockstar employees have all told me that is the reason.
So I am relaying what I have been told. Rockstar are perfectionists.
This may not totally debunk the trope that Rockstar want fans to double dip on console and PC. It is certainly strange that Rockstar have never grown their studios or changed how they make games to accommodate for it.
But this may also fundamentally be part of the studio’s culture now. If that change is going to happen, they may need even more of their senior management to retire. Maybe newer heads will have the energy to make this transition.
Because it’s actually possible that Rockstar is missing out more on PC gamers who never go console, because they don’t do full multiplatform launches. In any case, you shouldn’t hold your breath that Grand Theft Auto 6’s latest delay will lead to it coming on PC and consoles at the same time.
