Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has explained why there are no plans to release a PC version of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 19, alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions.
Speaking with Bloomberg at the Interactive Innovation Conference in Las Vegas last week, Zelnick was asked about the growing importance of the PC market for some of Take-Two‘s series.
Zelnick explained that when he started at Take-Two in 2007, series like NBA 2K only sold around 5% of their total sales on PC, whereas nowadays “with regard to a big title, PC can be 45%, 50% of the sales”.
Zelnick was then asked why, if this is the case, the decision was made not to release Grand Theft Auto 6 on PC on day one. He replied that Rockstar‘s aim has always been to serve the “core consumer” with its titles, before focusing on things like PC ports.
“Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that you’re judged by serving the core,” he explained. “Like, really serving the core consumer. If your core consumer isn’t there, if they’re not served first and best, you kind of don’t hit your other consumers.”
Asked whether the game had a console exclusivity period as a result of any marketing deals with Sony, Zelnick said this wasn’t the case, stressing: “No. I mean, historically Rockstar’s gone to console first.”
As Zelnick says, Rockstar has a history of releasing its games on console first, then bringing them to PC at a later date, often years down the line.
Grand Theft Auto 5 was released on PS3 and Xbox 360 in September 2013, with PS4 and Xbox One ports in November 2014, but didn’t come to PC until April 2015.
Similarly, Grand Theft Auto 4 came to PC eight months after console, while LA Noire came six months later. Red Dead Redemption 2 also had a 13-month gap between console and PC release.
The largest gap, however, was for the original Red Dead Redemption, which only arrived on PC in October 2024, some 14 years after it was originally released on consoles.
