GTA 6 won’t be releasing for a very long time, but when it does, there might be one platform that experiences more technical issues than the rest.
Every few years, a video game will come along that’s so remarkable and impactful, that its sequel becomes one of the most talked about projects in the whole gaming community. God of War Ragnarok and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are some of the strongest recent examples, but perhaps the one game that surpasses them all in terms of overall anticipation is Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar’s follow-up to the unfathomably successful Grand Theft Auto 5 has garnered a tremendous amount of hype, and it shows no signs of slowing down despite the game being nowhere close to release.
However, one wonders how clean Grand Theft Auto 6’s release will be. It’s become an ever-growing issue in the industry that many AAA games are receiving lengthy delays, and whether they were delayed or not, often release in a state that could hardly be called optimized. PC players have largely suffered the brunt of this trend, and at this point it’s almost expected that a technically-intensive game is going to experience trouble on PC at release. Given this track record and GTA’s already rocky PC release history, PC players are at risk for a less than smooth launch for GTA 6.
The Growing Issue of AAA PC Releases
The technical requirements of video games have evolved dramatically over the last ten years. With open-world games growing bigger than ever, graphical fidelity reaching photorealistic levels, and dozens of moving parts on screen at any given time, never have video games asked more of the hardware they’re played on. While console releases are made with specific hardware limitations in mind, PC releases have to navigate a wide range of hardware variations. This can create issues with the final product gamers receive, with something as simple as a graphics card greatly affecting the overall experience.
One of the most recent examples of this issue is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the highly anticipated sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Despite relatively smooth console performance on release, Jedi: Survivor experienced frame rate and general performance issues on PC. This prompted developer Respawn Entertainment to issue a series of patches shortly after release, and it recommended gamers ensure their drivers are up-to-date for the best experience. It’s by no means been a catastrophic release, but Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may very well be indicative of issues GTA 6 may have in the future.
Why GTA 6 May Run Into Issues on PC
If a game like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has run into so many issues on PC, after a delay meant to allow for greater optimization, there’s no telling how Grand Theft Auto 6’s PC release is going to go. GTA 5 is already a large game, and if Rockstar Games plans to push the envelope, it may result in various technical issues for certain PC setups. Rockstar has been wise to avoid any solid projections for a GTA 6 release date, but it’s entirely likely the game will experience at least one delay for the sake of optimization. Either that, or Rockstar waits until it’s absolutely sure the game is ready to give a release date.
There’s also a worrying precedent that GTA 6’s release on PC won’t be the same as on consoles. It took over a year after releasing on console for GTA 5 to release on PC, and while it likely made for a better product, it shows that accounting for PC variability can make game development more challenging. With rumors that GTA 6 is taking the franchise back to Vice City, Rockstar will likely push the boundaries of game development like never before when recreating the iconic location. If recent AAA games have been any indication, however, it’s probably best to brace for some growing pains on PC.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently in development.