Editing PC game write his view as to why the company Games from Rockstar always delaying the PC versions of their games, and why, in their opinion, the publisher is making a big mistake by delaying the PC version of their upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI
Back in 2020 Evan Lahti PC Gamer wrote that the PC won the console war, and that assessment seems more accurate now than it did 4 years ago. The PC has great advantages: customization, modding, almost unlimited backwards compatibility, and in recent years, old exclusive games from platform keepers have been added to these advantages.
Microsoft releasing everything at the same time on PC and Xbox Series, in games Nintendo PC players can play thanks to emulators, and Sony releases its games 6-24 months after their release on PS5 (and some projects are even released at the same time). So, at this time, PC gamers from all platforms have an almost complete library. But among this there is one problem – Rockstar Games.
According to PC Gamer, the delay in Rockstar Games games is even more unusual than without a console only on PC – mainly because it does not make any sense, unlike the actions of Sony or Nintendo.
Delays for PC versions of Rockstar games:
- Grand Theft Auto III: 7 months between release on console and PC;
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: 7 months;
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: 8 months;
- Impact: 2 years;
- Grand Theft Auto IV: 7 months;
- Red Dead Redemption: 14 years, 5 months;
- Grand Theft Auto V: 1 year 6 months;
- Red Dead Redemption 2: 1 year
According to PC Gamer, it would be a stretch to call Rockstar Games a similar publisher Square Enixbut unlike Rockstar, they at least get money from Sony to release their games as temporary exclusives for PS5. But even Square Enix has already decided to rethink its approach to exclusive deals after several financial failures of its major hits, such as Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
The Red Dead Redemption remaster was released on Nintendo Switch even earlier than on PC – this is a very shameful act by Rockstar Games. The console with very weak mobile hardware received the game earlier than PC players, who had to wait two whole generations for this and only on October 29 the game will be available to them at a clearly increased price of $ 50. Even this issue cannot be justified by some technical problems when the game is released on PC.
PC Gamer believes that porting a game in 2024 is a piece of cake for a publisher, especially in the console era, which is just a variation on the PC specific. It’s hard to believe that for a company of Rockstar’s size and resources, bringing one of its games to PC is anything other than business as usual.
It was unpleasant, although it was more understandable when Capcom it took an additional 7 months to release Monster Hunter: World on PC in 2018. World was the first major Monster Hunter on PC, and it took Capcom several months of development to improve the performance of the PC version . Now the publisher and studio have a much better relationship with PC – the next Monster Hunter will be released on PC on release day.
At the same time, Rockstar’s relationship with PC only worsened: each part of the first GTA trilogy required only 7-8 months for the PC version. GTA 5 and RDR 2 came out more than a year after their release. And the 14-year wait for RDR seems like a cruel joke: a kid born on the day Red Dead Redemption came out is now old enough to trick his parents into letting with the PC version played because it’s “historical and all that.”
At the time of writing, Rockstar has not even officially confirmed that GTA 6 will even be released on PC. That’s a clear explanation of why. The most logical conclusion is simple: Rockstar is counting on a second peak in sales, which should happen after the game is released on PC, and it hopes to sell the game twice to those players who prefer PC versions to consoles.
According to PC Gamer, on the one hand, this approach of Rockstar Games may seem logical and reasonable, but on the other hand, this offensive position towards PC gamers will harm the company in the long run. In 2023, total PC gaming revenue grew 8%, while console growth remained flat at 0.5%. Consoles still have a large share of the total market, but 28% of the console market is the Nintendo Switch (a console that Rockstar does not do business on), and PS4 still has a surprising number of players, which wins GTA 6′ is coming either.
PC game sales in the 1910s and now are vastly different. At the moment, many publishers indicate in their financial reports that the PC brings them even more money than the Microsoft console, which makes the choice of platforms for GTA 6 even more strange .
If this trend continues, it looks more and more like Rockstar has decided to bet on a lame horse. GTA 6 will certainly make a lot of money, but one day it could lead to something similar to Square Enix’s current problems: Final Fantasy XVI, limited to a period of exclusivity, was not financial success when it was released on PS5, and the PC version of the game since then no one is interested.
Rockstar Games has every chance to repeat the mistake of Square Enix, whose PC ports were not as successful as expected. This could happen as early as October 29, when the PC version of the Red Dead Redemption remaster is released – it would have made the company a lot more money if it hadn’t been released 14 years later after that and not at an inflated price.
