Obbe Vermeij, former technical director at Rockstar North, suspects Rockstar may narrow the gap between the console and PC releases of GTA 6 out of fear of unofficial ports made with generative AI. That's his personal view from an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, not an announcement: Rockstar and Take-Two haven't announced a PC version yet.
Vermeij worries someone will push the PS5 version through AI
"It really has changed the world," Vermeij said of generative AI. In Rockstar's position, he would be concerned that somebody could take the PS5 version and get AI to convert it to PC. Such a port wouldn't be as good as the official one, but it could still hurt sales.
"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," he added.
He believes today's tools are "probably" capable of pulling off a GTA 6 port. It would take "hours and hours and hours" and likely cost "tens of thousands of dollars in tokens", but "if it's GTA, I think people are gonna try it."
PC has always got GTA later than consoles
Vermeij recalled that the original GTA was built on PC, while an external studio in Dundee handled the PlayStation version and cut the textures from 256 colours down to 16, much to the artists' fury. With GTA 3, Rockstar "flipped that around" and started shipping console versions first.
Most publishers prefer simultaneous releases because they only have to pay for one marketing campaign, he said. GTA is big enough that the argument never carried much weight at Rockstar, and for developers it's simply easier to work on one version at a time.
GTA 6 itself won't use generative AI
GTA 6 launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. As Eurogamer notes, the game won't feature generative AI or microtransactions at launch. There is no official PC date: Rock Paper Shotgun only points to unconfirmed reports of a PC release in early 2027. For the confirmed systems, see our GTA 6 platforms page.
Vermeij left Rockstar back in 2009 and now makes indie games, so this is an experienced developer's opinion rather than inside information. Still, his point lands: the sheer effort of making a game used to protect it from rip-offs, and that has "completely changed now". He admits he doesn't see how to guard against it, though he expects a company like Take-Two to get the lawyers on the case.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer
