GTA VI PC Speculation & Discussion

[-Eddie-]

Rockstar was internally aiming for 2024 (rumour), then 2025 (T1), then May 26, 2026 (T2). If they miss the third one, the game is in development hell.

 

Even as a pessimist, I just don't see them missing an exact date they've given themselves a year to hit.

[kittysune]

1 hour ago, Spider-Vice said:

Dexerto has completely misinterpreted what Jason Schreier said a while back, and is clickbaiting. There's a reason they're so untrusted we have even filtered hem out here  

it's totally for the clicks and engagement

[BS_BlackScout]

2 hours ago, Spider-Vice said:

Dexerto has completely misinterpreted what Jason Schreier said a while back, and is clickbaiting. There's a reason they're so untrusted we have even filtered hem out here  

Dexitto more like. They just want to be the first to "report" stuff even if it isn't correct. 

[Xerukal]

Dexerto got their start reporting on Twitch drama/streamer slop content. It's kinda stupid that they've been so legitimized just because they will report on literally anything. Pay them no mind IMO.

 

Pretty much anyone could tell you that there's "no guarantee" on any date. GTA V's PS3/360 versions only suffered one official delay as far as I can remember (from Spring to Fall 2013). But RDR 2 definitely slipped a few times, and it's not like Rockstar's a stranger to delaying things last minute.

 

I'd say the likelihood of the May date staying is directly proportional to the amount of marketing they start pumping out closer to that date. Extended radio silence usually heralds a delay. We're all kind of used to that by now though, lmao.

Edited May 13 by Xerukal

[Jason]

It's a news aggregator site that revolves around reporting anything clickbaity it can get its hands on. I think it was them who would exploit the f*ck out of the search engines SEO stuff to get them as one of the first links when you search for stuff.

 

They basically brute forced their way into a well known "news" site, cause it wasn't built on anything resembling good reporting, investigating or writing.

[kastrenzo]

I estimate Fall 2027.

Side note, by then, Windows 10 will long have been retired. I wouldnt be surprised in the slightest if its a Win11 requirement.

[MrQuiche]

1 hour ago, kastrenzo said:

I estimate Fall 2027.

Side note, by then, Windows 10 will long have been retired. I wouldnt be surprised in the slightest if its a Win11 requirement.

It has to be, if support for an OS has ended you can't release a game that states it supports, of course there's 99% chance Windows 10 will work fine but for legal reasons you can't put an OS that won't receive security updates as the minimum OS for your game to run on.

[Xeonon]

17 minutes ago, MrQuiche said:

It has to be, if support for an OS has ended you can't release a game that states it supports, of course there's 99% chance Windows 10 will work fine but for legal reasons you can't put an OS that won't receive security updates as the minimum OS for your game to run on.

It does not have to be released on any specific OS. It can perfectly be released on Windows 10 with zero issues even if it’s Windows 11 by that time if I’m not mistaken. I played and bought plenty of games back on XP when Vista came around. 

[kastrenzo]

3 minutes ago, Xeonon said:

It does not have to be released on any specific OS. It can perfectly be released on Windows 10 with zero issues even if it’s Windows 11 by that time if I’m not mistaken. I played and bought plenty of games back on XP when Vista came around. 

what I was talking about would have been the game officially requiring Win11,  and problems for Win10 not being investigated.  

not that it wouldnt work outright.

[JasperReikevik]

I would say 2027 - 2028 for PC Version and i'll gladly wait for it, i'm not in hype for the PS5 Version since i know the final version is going to be better. You have time to replay the whole serie before it comes out.

[Moncastler]

14 hours ago, kastrenzo said:

Side note, by then, Windows 10 will long have been retired. I wouldnt be surprised in the slightest if its a Win11 requirement.

I mean, why would you even use Windows 10 after October 2025? Unless you join Microsoft's ESU program (which costs 30$/year), you're not getting any security update anymore.

I get the Windows 11 hate, but it's much better to swallow the pill and upgrade to it rather than having an insecure OS connected to the internet.

 

Or, you could try Linux and dual boot with Windows 11 to minimise the time you use Windows 11.

[Max Payne]

Some people are really awkward as they go onto ask things like if their 5090 will be able to run GTA VI. That question can't be serious tbh, or these people are paranoid. Pretty sure there'll be people running the game even with an RTX 3050.

[Xerukal]

2 hours ago, Moncastler said:

I mean, why would you even use Windows 10 after October 2025? Unless you join Microsoft's ESU program (which costs 30$/year), you're not getting any security update anymore.

I get the Windows 11 hate, but it's much better to swallow the pill and upgrade to it rather than having an insecure OS connected to the internet.

 

Or, you could try Linux and dual boot with Windows 11 to minimise the time you use Windows 11.

Should be just fine for a bit if you run an AV and practice common sense, at least for a year or two.

 

I'm having a difficult time imagining games and software needing Windows 11 features to function in the near future. Outside of stuff like DirectStorage, which is supported on 10, but has "IO optimizations" on 11. Not actually sure what that means or how it impacts DS performance on 10 vs 11. I can see VI taking full advantage of this for character switching and loading/streaming, since V already has to an extent.  

 

 

[Jason]

38 minutes ago, Max Payne said:

Some people are really awkward as they go onto ask things like if their 5090 will be able to run GTA VI. That question can't be serious tbh, or these people are paranoid. Pretty sure there'll be people running the game even with an RTX 3050.

 

Those people are almost always just humble braggers.

 

It's the same when a game comes out that runs like sh*t but someone on a 9800X3D/5090 comes out and goes "runs fine for me". Well no sh*t, if it ran bad for you the game would struggle to load the main menu for everyone else.

[Moncastler]

6 hours ago, Xerukal said:

Should be just fine for a bit if you run an AV and practice common sense, at least for a year or two.

 

I'm having a difficult time imagining games and software needing Windows 11 features to function in the near future. Outside of stuff like DirectStorage, which is supported on 10, but has "IO optimizations" on 11. Not actually sure what that means or how it impacts DS performance on 10 vs 11. I can see VI taking full advantage of this for character switching and loading/streaming, since V already has to an extent.  

I also do think that no game will require a particular Windows 11 feature, the kernels are very similar and other than DirectStorage I can't name something else that works better on Windows 11.

But one or two years is A LOT, even with AV and common sense I wouldn't use a non-supported desktop OS for so much time. Microsoft patches a lot of vulnerabilities each month in their "patch tuesdays", after 6 months you'll be significantly behind already.

[8bit]

I heard there's going to be a massive information dump around this time next year.

[TagoKG]

https://gamerant.com/xbox-emulator-on-windows-rumor/ there's only rumours for now, but if microsoft brinds xbox emulation on PC this will be  the last R* game with exclusive launch. yes no like native port but better that wait 1-2 years.

[Jason]

12 minutes ago, TagoKG said:

https://gamerant.com/xbox-emulator-on-windows-rumor/ there's only rumours for now, but if microsoft brinds xbox emulation on PC this will be  the last R* game with exclusive launch. yes no like native port but better that wait 1-2 years.

 

Well, two things. 1) this is most likely referring to old games stuck on console hardware and 2) they'll need the publishers permission.

 

Publishers won't just let Xbox, through an emulator, publish a PC version for a game. Same thing happened with Xbox console BC, every single game that got BC support was with the publishers permission.

 

But the talk is the Xbox console will just be a version of Windows with a gaming focused interface, so you'd think that would change how a publisher handles a PC version if they're releasing on Xbox. Which would be a big deal except R* are basically the only third party left who delay their PC version, and they'l probably make GTA VI the last time they do that anyway cause it's stupid now, nevermind in 5+ years when they release their next game after VI.

 

It's why I've been saying for a while that the gaming hardware landscape is at the start of a period of massive change. Third parties flocking to the Switch 2, rise of the PC handhelds, Xbox consoles potentially being Windows PC's... It's hard to even take a wild stab at how it'll all shake out, but times are a changing.

[Moncastler]

15 hours ago, Jason said:

Well, two things. 1) this is most likely referring to old games stuck on console hardware and 2) they'll need the publishers permission.

 

Publishers won't just let Xbox, through an emulator, publish a PC version for a game. Same thing happened with Xbox console BC, every single game that got BC support was with the publishers permission.

It's different though, the BC program required to republish a game essentially as it was bundled with a very specific emulator configuration. The difficulty there was also that many games had licensed music, tracks, cars, ..., so publishers weren't really keen to republish their games. Here they're talking about a general emulator (that in the case of Xbox Series should be more a translation layer), it's actually closer to how console BC works. All games published on PS4 run on PS5, and games published on Xbox Series would also run on PC and Xbox Next. It should be in Microsoft's best interests to make sure that Xbox players don't lose their whole library once they move to a PC-like console.

 

Genuine question though: excluding GTA VI, how many Xbox Series games are not on PC?

[Jason]

Just now, Moncastler said:

It's different though

 

The how might be different, the "publishers will have to greenlight their games for it" won't be. There's simply no way Xbox will allow any and all Xbox console games to just run officially on PC through emulation. That is, I expect, a whole legal nightmare.

 

In any case it will be for older titles still stuck on the hardware cause yea there's virtually no other publisher now avoiding PC. There's still some older titles stuck on Xbox and console though, and the rights holders for those may greenlight it cause why not, they're never gonna do a PC port anyway. But a hypothetical modern Xbox console game that doesn't have a PC release? That studio may plan on doing their own PC version, so they won't allow it. It might also be a moot point altogether cause as I said above the next Xbox is increasingly expected to be a Windows based machine with a gaming focused UI with full Windows support for apps like Steam. At that point Xbox isn't even really a console anymore, it's a plug and play gaming PC for the living room.

[Moncastler]

23 minutes ago, Jason said:

The how might be different, the "publishers will have to greenlight their games for it" won't be. There's simply no way Xbox will allow any and all Xbox console games to just run officially on PC through emulation. That is, I expect, a whole legal nightmare.

Even though I'm skeptical this will land for Xbox Series games, I really struggle to see the legal nightmare.

 

Whenever a studio publishes a game on Xbox, they agree to Microsoft's conditions and to the fact that they can do more or less what they want with their storefront. If Microsoft is able to run Xbox code on Windows with an official translation layer for all games, developers can't do anything other than removing the Xbox version if they're not pleased with their game running on PC. I think it's very similar to what Valve has done with Proton, games were all developed for Windows but publishers have to accept that their code most likely will run on Linux as well.

[Jason]

6 minutes ago, Moncastler said:

Whenever a studio publishes a game on Xbox, they agree to Microsoft's conditions and to the fact that they can do more or less what they want with their storefront.

 

And yet they still required publisher permission to do BC for every single BC game they did. It will be no different here, it'll be a whitelist situation.

 

Emulation already is a really grey area that publishers already gets dodgy about, the emulator being made by Microsoft won't change that I suspect.

 

I would love it to go as you think it will, that'd be great for us, but I just don't see it.

[Moncastler]

39 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

And yet they still required publisher permission to do BC for every single BC game they did. It will be no different here, it'll be a whitelist situation.

 

Emulation already is a really grey area that publishers already gets dodgy about, the emulator being made by Microsoft won't change that I suspect.

 

I would love it to go as you think it will, that'd be great for us, but I just don't see it.

Xbox and Xbox 360 games on Xbox One and Series were treated in the same way as Sony did with their PS Classics selection. Games needed manual configurations and possibly a license renewal for some content.

 

Most of those games came at a time where digital storefronts didn't exist, meaning that new agreements would be needed for digital releases. And, on top of that, Sony and Microsoft needed permission to redistribute a game that would run with some modifications done by them.

 

Console emulation has never been a gray area, nor has it ever caused legal issues. Microsoft wants to have their next system BC with all Xbox One and Xbox Series games + the selection of Xbox 360 and Xbox classic titles, so they build a piece of software (emulator / translation layer) to make sure that all digital libraries will carry to the next Xbox. I don't see it any differently than PS4 BC on PS5, it's just that the next Xbox will run code made for Windows.

 

If they do make this emulator / translation layer there's IMO a chance that they'll gatekeep it on Xbox, but I don't see the point for them to lock PC out of such a nice feature.

[Jason]

3 minutes ago, Moncastler said:

Console emulation has never been a gray area, nor has it ever caused legal issues. Microsoft wants to have their next system BC with all Xbox One and Xbox Series games + the selection of Xbox 360 and Xbox classic titles, so they build a piece of software (emulator / translation layer) to make sure that all digital libraries will carry to the next Xbox. I don't see it any differently than PS4 BC on PS5, it's just that the next Xbox will run code made for Windows.

 

Maybe I read it differently, but I read it as them bringing the Xbox library to PC through emulation. Not the Xbox library exclusively to the next Xbox console.

 

It's playing Xbox games on a typical Windows gaming PC where they'll want publisher permission.

 

I'd love to be completely wrong but I'll be very surprised if I am. It'd be a great pro-consumer move my entire Xbox library including all my 360 era games that I own digitally became playable on PC through emulation, but I just don't see it being that clear cut. Working on the Xbox console through a locked Xbox app, sure. Working on my normal Windows PC, I sadly doubt.

[Spider-Vice]

I've added an extra poll re: PC release date. If you've already voted on the previous poll (PC and console) just click "Show Vote Options" and resubmit!

[yonatan755]

My guess is around november 2027. ( or if there is another delay, about 18 months from the initial release)

I'll double dip with the ps5 version, I can't help it, the wait will kill me. (that, and spoilers anxiety) 

Edited May 22 by yonatan755

[TagoKG]

[Xerukal]

That's honestly really amazing to see. How far we've come since the days of Dark Souls PC ports basically being an afterthought. 

 

Just crazy how low that Xbox number actually is. Rockstar's going to be selling to a majority Playstation playerbase for at least 6 months, lol. 

Edited May 26 by Xerukal

[Totallycasual]

While it's very promising, Elden Ring is the kind of best case scenario of platform distribution, i think it would be pretty naive to think that a GTA game would come anywhere near those types of percentage breakdown.  Before people attack and give me all of the negative reactions possible, I'm a PC gamer first and foremost, i would absolutely love PC to get a simultaneous release, but i just don't see it happening.  I know a lot of you are more optimistic and feel like the PC platform can be No.1, but i feel that games like GTA will always do much better on console.  

[Xerukal]

1 hour ago, Totallycasual said:

While it's very promising, Elden Ring is the kind of best case scenario of platform distribution, i think it would be pretty naive to think that a GTA game would come anywhere near those types of percentage breakdown.  Before people attack and give me all of the negative reactions possible, I'm a PC gamer first and foremost, i would absolutely love PC to get a simultaneous release, but i just don't see it happening.  I know a lot of you are more optimistic and feel like the PC platform can be No.1, but i feel that games like GTA will always do much better on console.  

I think this is really interesting, because people used to say the same thing about Soulsborne games. Games like this are, or simply perform, better on console. Now look where we are. 

 

The truth is, people on PC play all kinds of stuff. The game just has to be good, and release in a well enough state so that its technical issues don't overshadow the quality of the experience itself. Over the past 5 years alone, we've had all kinds of genres blow up on Steam. I mean just last year, Helldivers 2 broke PC records for months upon months, even with its several different (legitimate) controversies regarding region locks and weapon balance. This was a Sony-funded exclusive that noone really had much expectation of on PC, pre-launch. 

 

GTA VI being number 1 on PC is inevitable IMO. Even if they somehow end up stalling the release for 2 years (doubtful). Many people seriously underestimate just how gargantuan V was on PC. Really have to look no further than GTA RP and private servers as their own de facto genre. But even if we take those out of the equation and just talk about the game itself, it has had a basically infinite life on PC since 2015. The same will be the case for VI, assuming it's handled well from a technical and release standpoint. 

 

It's really just a "if you build it, they will come" situation. Release simultaneously, make improvements to your ports, and just make an awesome f*cking game. People will support it in droves on PC. For a company of Rockstar's size and reputation, they can get away with doing the bare minimum of this as well. 

Edited May 26 by Xerukal