Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball has commented on GTA 6 streaming rumors, saying the game won’t be streaming on PC, nor exclusively on Xbox.
Earlier this week, The Verge reported that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees during an all-hands meeting that the company has something planned for GTA 6 that “no other platform holder is doing,” which sources identified as Xbox landing exclusive streaming rights for GTA 6. This would’ve meant that to stream the game, you would need Xbox Cloud Gaming, but more crucially, it would potentially mean that the game would be available for PC and mobile players to play via Xbox Cloud Gaming on the platforms.
However, Ball posted on Twitter to acknowledge this report, saying: “While the excitement for GTA 6 and Xbox is great to see, it has also led to some misreporting. We are looking forward to launching GTA 6 on Xbox November 19, though the game will not be streaming exclusively or to PC,” debunking the report.
With Ball’s wording, the implication seems to be that GTA 6 will be available to stream, however, it’ll be excluded from the Xbox Cloud Streaming PC app.
The absence of PC streaming is interesting, as obviously the lack of a PC version of the game has been a major talking point. Rockstar Games typically goes console-first, whether that be from a desire to make the PC version as good as it can be or just knowing that people will double dip on a PC version when it releases in a year or two, so perhaps it is intentionally not allowing streaming on the platform.
Although with other services like Amazon Luna and Nvidia GeForce Now, there obviously isn’t a console to go along with them, I’m not sure PC being excluded is a given. Red Dead Redemption 2 did come to streaming, but it was through a Stadia release that dropped weeks after the PC version.
However, it’s worth noting that Xbox’s new game streaming limits that will only allow 15 hours of game time if you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – with more hours being able for purchase – also come into effect in November, the same month GTA 6 releases. Given that Rockstar Games titles are generally pretty long, I’d wager that’s not a coincidence.
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