Why is GTA 6 not on PC at launch? Ex Rockstar developer explains theory

The upcoming release of GTA 6 might be the most anticipated game in history but not everyone will be happy when it finally hits the shelves.

No, it's not just mums and dads who worry about seeing their children stealing cars or girlfriends who are annoyed at their partners hitting the virtual strip clubs on offer.

There have been many memes about the very long amount of time we've had to wait for the next instalment in the Grand Theft Auto series, especially because GTA 6 has been delayed for a while, but the current release date of 19 November this year is still in place.

Fans of the series will be eagerly awaiting the new game but anyone who wanted to play on their PC will have to wait, after it was confirmed that it won't be included on launch date, with fans instead having to turn to either Playstation or Xbox if they want to play.

It's been a huge project (Rockstar Games)

And now former Rockstar producer John Ricchio has explained why that decision was most likely made, as he reassures the PC players in full-on break up terms that it's not them, it's Rockstar.

Ricchio, who worked for the company between 2003 and 2014, working on titles such as GTA V (yes it was that long ago), and Red Dead Redemption, spoke with Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly recently.

He said: “It’s not even that we don’t care about PC. It was just like, 'is it worth spending time getting a PC port going versus working on GTA V?'”

Instead, he suggests that Rockstar focus on consoles first because it is easier to expand from there, rather than to develop a game for the more advanced PC hardware and then have to work backwards.

He adds:“You’re much better off starting with the constraints… because shrinking is a lot harder than extending.”

While the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are far closer to PC hardware than they used to be, the time and money which would have to be spent on developing the game to be ready for a launch on PC is probably going to be spent elsewhere.

Ricchio concluded: "There either has to be enough of a business reason to do some of those ports, or the port has to be super easy to do, which it rarely is.”

It's not the only change that gamers will have to get used to when November 19 finally rolls around, as Rockstar also recently confirmed that we wouldn't have any physical disc releases, despite the lawsuit that has impacted Playstation in recent years.

Although we still haven't officially had a PC release confirmed, Ricchio's comments suggest that we're likely to get a delayed one, rather than not getting one at all.

Considering gamers have been waiting 13 years for the latest version, I'm sure they can manage a few extra months, or years, until the PC version arrives.