GTA 6 is likely to skip PC again and only launching on current gen consoles
kotaku.com
I'm confused why Kotaku mentioning next gen in the title when Rockstar only commented on current generation PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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Sure, but GTA 6 is 100% already working on PC. Not just because they develop the game on PC, or because they're building on top of the RDR2 engine (which is already ported to PC), but because they planned to support PC from the beginning, and that type of engine work usually gets ironed out early during development or in pre-production.
I was just pointing out the flaw in your tire analogy though. TBH I'm not saying they should give free copies to people who bought it on other platforms. That's unprecedented for giant publishers like this. But I am pissed that they're delaying the PC version since you can be sure it's a calculated plan to ensure PC gamers buy the game twice. They collected enough analytics and surveys to know that a significant amount of GTA5 PC gamers also own a next-gen console. It's all very nefarious.
It runs on their specific hardware under specific situations, not any PC. I am just pointing out the flaw in your en-tire logic.
That's not how game development using an engine works... RAGE likely compiles code for at minimum a majority of modern computer hardware with next to no tweaking, and probably the same with Xbox & PlayStation consoles.
Most game engines used on large projects generally are made to handle as much of a variety of hardware as possible with little to no changes in the code – if you make a game using Unreal Engine or Unity for example it will almost certainly be able to work on Xbox, Playstation, and most PCs just fine. Most of the performance optimization for different hardware can then be offloaded to the engine. It's likely the same with RAGE.
I actually have experience porting games and engines to consoles. If it runs on a development PC (likely Windows), they have the build system and platform layer implemented, which is the hardest part. Porting the content is also an important step, but really only for consoles, which usually have limited memory and power.
Typically the only problem with "PC ports" today is when the game wasn't designed around mouse/keyboard, or when the devs didn't make an effort to optimize it on consumer specs (although nowadays console architecture isn't too different from PCs so there are more optimizations that work across platforms). Another potential problem is when the game gets a lot of last minute hacks to fix bugs in order to ship on a console and those hacks don't survive a platform transition, then the publisher just tells them to ship as is since there's no certification process on PC. Basically, the problems are almost always logistical/business decisions due to a lazy/cheap publisher.
None of that is going to apply to this game. Rockstar has always intended to ship and fully support PC from the beginning. They had the technology, the talent, the incentive, and the time to do it. The most realistic explanation (IMO) for the PC delay is that they're trying to double-dip.