Why do GTAs come late for PCs? If they ever do.

[NabeelFarooqui9000]

So there are  a lot of games out there that do simultaneous launches for Xbox360/PS3/PC. But Why did GTA IV's and GTA V's PC version come out so late? I mean 8 fricking months! V still isnt confirmed.

 

Like, does 'optimizing' a game for PC take such a ling time? Do the companies prefer Consoles? Do consoles make more money for them?

 

PS, its almost here   

[BlackListedB]

Dude, this is old news if you keep up with the evolution and history of Rockstar, or have been a gamer for some time, hopefully you read up on some of the gaming history, but in short, Rockstar Games is the brainchild of Sam Houser and his brother Dan Houser, they left BMG Multimedia positions to take over from DMA of Scotland, where at that time, GTA was born, Lemmings was born, Race and Chase was born, among other IP.

The company grew to some extent at the time under the auspices of Wunderkind David Jones. Lemmings in some ways inspired GTA with the ability to have many moving creatures or things on the computer screen at any given time, the birth of 'smart AI' in some ways.

The Houser's background differs from that of DMA founder David Jones, that's why the early DMA is primarily PC based titles. For Rockstar, it's always had a focus on consoles because the Housers were raised on those games, as was I.

I'm still a person who doesn't invalidate PC gaming, and no one should, but the fact remains that consoles are so much easier to cater to, no matter what anyone in the PC realm thinks. The hardware is vastly different on the user end, in console gaming, the only hardware issues are from the competing companies offering their own handheld or console platforms

[Chris]

Well I'm not a game developer but it makes sense that optimising for PC does indeed take a lot longer. With consoles, EVERYONE has the exact same hardware, you are developing the game for just two systems (PS3 and 360). PCs on the other hand, almost every player will have a slightly different setup to any other player. There are so many variables, everything needs to be tested a lot more thoroughly.

 

There is of course the piracy factor too, I don't think you can really rule that out. Fact is, when a simultaneous PC release happens, most people who own both a PC and console will forego the console version, and a large percentage of those will choose to pirate it as it's so much easier (compared to pirating for a console). With that said, the growth of Steam in the past few years has got so big that I think it's now become a lot easier for PC gamers to legitimately and willingly purchase PC games instead of pirating them. We can hope for GTA and indeed other franchises in the future to do simultaneous releases, but there's probably various other hurdles to overcome for developers/publishers. I'm not knowledgeable enough on that area to properly comment on it.

[BlackListedB]

Rockstar have said most recently that in comments I can't say verbatim here, money and resources, and projected earnings all are factors they use to consider another platform support [PC or other systems] but none of us know the actual bean-counters at Rockstar or Take2, and they determine the ultimate say, perhaps??

 

Sam, Dan Houser, and Les Benzies could all decide that PC is also a segment to cover, and I think if they're taking feedback as we all suspect, they do know, and it's rather hard to ignore user input on Newswire, that PC is still very much an issue for GTA fans who opt for that in particular

Edited September 18, 2013 by BlackListedB