It looks like Grand Theft Auto 6 has a marketing deal with PlayStation.
In a new interview with Bloomberg, Take-Two head Strauss Zelnick explained how GTA 6 developer Rockstar always likes to release its games on console first. In his words,”I think with regard to a release like that you’re judged by serving the core”. As a reminder, GTA 6 is slated to release this November on Xbox Series X/S and PS5, but will not arrive on PC at the same time.
Zelnick elaborated further, stating that this means “really serving the core consumer” and “if your core consumer isn’t there, if they’re not served first and best, you kind of don’t hit your other consumers”. This is despite him saying earlier in the conversation that when he initially joined Take-Two back in 2007, PC releases accounted for around five percent of overall sales, but that isn’t the case now.
In fact, Zelnick led into his spiel about releasing on console first and hitting that ‘core’ audience by stating: “Now with regard to a big title, PC can be 45, 50 percent of the sales.”
Journalist Jason Schreier seemingly asked Zelnick directly if another reason that GTA 6 wasn’t coming to PC on its initial launch was due Take-Two’s marketing deal with Sony, to which the publishing CEO replied: “No… I mean, historically Rockstar’s gone to console first.” So how does this affect what we’ve seen so far? Well, notably, all the GTA 6 trailer footage we’ve seen so far has been captured from PS5 consoles, supposedly giving us an accurate representation of what the final product will look like running on our home consoles.
I still find it a little odd that GTA 6 is skipping PC on its initial release (which is currently slated for 19th November), given Zelnick’s PC comments. However, this is nothing new for Rockstar; GTA 5 released on PC on 14th April, 2015 following its initial 2013 console release date. Likewise, Red Dead Redemption 2 came to PC on 5th November 2019, one year after its console release date.
In April, Zelnick discussed GTA 6’s price, and while he didn’t give us that all important figure, the Take-Two CEO stressed that the company’s “job is to charge way, way, way less of the value delivery”. Early last year, a report suggested that GTA 6 could retail for $100.
As for its console debut, Zelnick previously said he isn’t worried about getting GTA 6 to work on Microsoft’s lesser powered Xbox Series S console. Zelnick simply said the team would always “find a way to support platforms despite different levels of tech”, in a bid to alleviate any concerns. “Our labels are really good at that,” he said. “I’m not really worried.”
