Former Rockstar Games Producer Revealed Why Studio’s Titles Release on PC Later Than on Consoles

As is well known, Rockstar Games is one of the few gaming studios that prefer to release their titles on consoles first and only later on PC. This has almost always been the case, especially if you look at the company's major franchises—GTA and Red Dead Redemption. The studio's upcoming project, Grand Theft Auto VI, will also launch on consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S) on November 19, while the PC version has not yet been confirmed.

Former Rockstar Games producer John Ricchio, who worked at the company from 2003 to 2014 and contributed to such projects as Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, and GTA 5, recently appeared on Reece 'Kiwi Talkz' Reilly's YouTube channel. During their conversation, the topic came up of Rockstar Games releasing its PC versions significantly later than its console versions—often by a year or even more. Ricchio explained that the studio focuses heavily on perfecting the console versions first before moving on to develop the PC version of any given game. As an example, he mentioned the original Red Dead Redemption, recalling that the developers had an early PC prototype, but releasing it on computers at that stage could have raised questions about optimization quality. You can check out more detailed information from John Ricchio on this matter below:

“You're much better off starting with the constraints, shrinking is a lot harder than extending. 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 5? If you're working on that, you're not working on something else usually. Are you spending money on that? You're not spending money on something else.”

Despite the long wait, PC users remain confident that GTA 6 will eventually be released on their platform sometime after the game's console launch. This belief is further supported by a previous tease from Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games' parent company. Additionally, reliable insider Tom Henderson has claimed that the PC version of GTA 6 is reportedly scheduled to launch next autumn.

You can also find out everything we know about GTA 6 so far—the story, gameplay, map, open world, platforms, and more - as well as how GTA 6 is reshaping the 2026 game calendar and everything about GTA 6 pre-order details: price, bonuses, exact time, and Ultimate Edition.

Grand Theft Auto VI will release on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.