GTA 5 hitting PC "this fall", says Nvidia executive
Though it’s not yet been officially announced by developers Rockstar, we’ve received the clearest indication yet that Grand Theft Auto 5 will indeed be coming to PC this year, as well as releasing on Xbox 360 and PS3.
The news comes from a somewhat unlikely source – Chris Evenden, senior IR director at graphics card manufacturers Nvidia.
Speaking at the company’s most recent earnings call (and spotted by CraveOnline), Evenden put Rockstar’s next open-world gangster opus as among the top games coming to PC later this year:
“The PC market is evolving, as entry level laptops face pressure from tablets,” said Evenden
“Yet sales of specialty PCs like gaming systems and work stations continue to grow. The disparity reflects how consumers use these different classes of PCs. Many consumers look for PC as a general purpose device they can use for browsing, email, social media video. But much of this can be better served by a tablet.
“In contrast, gamers are preparing their systems for a strong roster of games coming this fall, including blockbuster franchises, such as Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto V and Assassin’s Creed IV.” (emphasis my own – ed.)
Can we believe Evenden’s loose-lipped statement? Given his position within one of the leading gaming PC hardware manufacturers, you’d be within your rights to assume he may have some insider knowledge on such matters, considering Rockstar would need Nvidia’s support to help optimise GTA 5 for their GPUs.
However, there is of course the possibility that Evenden is, like most people assuming that Rockstar won’t want to pass up a giant, rabid audience by leaving GTA 5 off the PC, and is vocalising those assumptions.
Either way, the evidence to suggest that Grand Theft Auto 5 is indeed coming to the PC continues to mount, with both retail listings and job postings suggesting Rockstar are gearing up for a PC release.
What’s most interesting though is the timing suggested by Evenden. If the game is indeed releasing “this fall”, why are Rockstar remaining silent on its existence? It’s suggests hardly a sizeable gap between any potential PC release and the console release date of September 17 2013. Another mistake? GTA IV’s PC version shipped eight months after the console versions did. Could Rockstar have underestimated their own porting abilities and have been able to get the PC version together sooner than they had anticipated?
Who knows! What is certain is we’ll be sure to pass on any official news of a PC release of the game if and when we get it, so stay tuned to Tech Digest for more.
In other GTA 5 news, Rockstar have also confirmed that the game will be getting post-launch DLC packs, but stressed that importing the game from other international regions could affect the compatibility of downloadable content.
