GTA 6 won’t be on PC at launch — Zelnick explains why

PC players hoping for a day-one GTA 6 release are out of luck — and Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has now explained exactly why, putting to rest the long-running theory that a Sony marketing deal was keeping the game off PC.

Speaking at Bloomberg’s IICON conference on May 4, Zelnick was asked directly whether PlayStation exclusivity arrangements were behind the decision to skip PC at launch. His answer was straightforward: no. Rockstar has simply always launched on console first, and GTA 6 is no different. The reasoning is that Rockstar sees console players as their core audience, and serving them first and best is what determines whether a release succeeds.

What makes this interesting is that Zelnick acknowledged in the same breath just how significant PC has become commercially. When Take-Two first started releasing NBA 2K on PC years ago, those versions represented around 5% of total sales. Today, a major release can see PC account for as much as half of all copies sold. The implication is clear — Rockstar isn’t ignoring PC, they’re banking on a second sales wave when the port eventually arrives.

Based on historical Rockstar patterns, GTA 5 took 18 months to reach PC after its console launch, and Red Dead Redemption 2 followed roughly 13 months later. If that holds, PC players are looking at sometime in early to mid 2028 at the earliest.

November 19 remains the date for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. No PC window has been announced.