An Update On A Possible 'GTA 6' PC Release Date Plans, Due To AI

Rockstar has not yet discussed two specific aspects of Grand Theft Auto 6's launch: GTA 6 Online and the GTA 6 PC release dates. GTA 5 delayed its release on PC 19 months after the launch of the console version, but new information suggests that GTA 6 won't get anywhere close to that. One possible reason? AI.

Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, former Rockstar North technical director Obbe Vermeij explains how Rockstar may now be backed into a corner thanks to rapid advances in AI, and how the technology can now unravel video games, including putting games on platforms they are not even released on. Hence, the idea is that once it's released, AI gurus could get at least some version of GTA 6 playable on PC far before Rockstar does it officially, and the studio would desperately want to avoid that scenario. Here's Vermeij, who left Rockstar in 2009:

"It really has changed the world," Vermeij said, "and I think I would be concerned, if I was Rockstar, that somebody would just take the PS5 version and get AI to change it to PC, which won't be as good as their effort, but it could still also hurt their sales. So, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an effort to get [the releases] a little bit closer together. Obviously, I don't really know what they're thinking."

"It will take a bunch of tokens and everything, so it would probably cost like, tens of thousands of dollars in tokens. But like, you know, if it's GTA, I think people are gonna try it," he concludes.

It's probably a foregone conclusion that people will, in fact, try it, and the AI tech capable of this gets more advanced by the day. Some companies have tried to take down these projects, but the tech is a hydra, hard to kill entirely, if not impossible.

The latest we heard about a possible GTA 6 PC release date came from GamesBeat, which said it would arrive on PC in the first quarter of 2027. That would be just a few months after console release, rather than the sprawling 19-month gap of GTA 5, and would align with what Vermeij is saying here. The idea there was that the PC market has grown since GTA 5, and Steam is hitting concurrent player records multiple times a year. The potential downside is that players may wait for the PC version if they know it won't be that long, rather than giving in and playing it on console, but it is very clear that Rockstar will not be short on sales at launch. The AI factor, however, is a more recent consideration.

GTA 6 Online is a separate conversation and doesn't factor into the AI debate. That's totally new content, and whenever it does come out, the online multiplayer game run on Rockstar servers is unlikely to be replicated on PC by AI, if that's even plausible at all. There is speculation that GTA 6 Online would launch alongside the PC release, but again, without any official information from Rockstar, we don't know for sure. After release, however, it would be wise to start clarifying some of this.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.