There are two platforms notably absent from GTA 6‘s release. First, you have PC, which will inevitably happen within the first year or two, and then there’s the Switch 2. Although no entries in the hyper-violent series have made it to Nintendo’s systems yet, this would be a good time to set a precedent given the mutual popularity, but an ex developer from Rockstar sees it differently.
Speaking to Kiwi Talkz in a currently private interview, Jérémy Hartvick, a former open world designer at Rockstar who worked on GTA 6 from 2017 through to 2020, explains why he doesn’t see a port happening. “I don’t believe it even makes sense, because I’m not sure the audience for GTA 6 is so much the audience for the Switch,” he starts.
“If you’re a GTA fan, you would probably buy a console on which GTA will come out,” he adds. The logic is fair – if you were hoping to get the new Grand Theft Auto, you probably opted for a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X to begin with.
Sales for both jumped up on the back of the Netflix preview. Fans generally seem to understand and accept that if they want to play GTA 6 as soon as possible, there are only two options for doing so.
Nintendo exists in its own lane, because if you want new Mario, Zelda or Kirby games, you need a Switch 2. There are probably people who only have the hybrid platform who wouldn’t mind checking out GTA 6, but I’d be willing to bet it’s a minority overall.
“Does it make sense for you to go out of your way to probably deliver a subpar experience, because it does not run exactly the same when you know anyone will buy a PS5 to get your game?” he asks, rhetorically, but providing the obvious answer anyway: “No.”
This is the other half of the equation. Such a large release would need to be boiled down and optimized for the Switch 2’s hardware. That’s a lot of extra labor for something that’s already manpower intensive, for potentially spurious rewards comparatively. Hartvick does mention the notion isn’t “totally ludicrous,” but for the time-being, don’t count on it.