If you've ever seen the Iron Man mod, then you know why a GTA V PC releasewill be a big deal. The PC Master Race has been clamoring for a GTA V PC release ever since the game launched in Sept. and it looks like maybe, just maybe, their wish will come true in February.
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According to a report from the Sixth Axis, Amazon employees have been telling curious customers that GTA V Pc release date is expected in late February/early March of this year. Here's what Sixth Axis said in their report:
I did ask Amazon myself when the game would release, and they replied "The computer version will apparently come out in the United States first on March 12, 2014." but went on to say that this was not an official confirmation from the manufacturers or from Amazon themselves, but rather an outside source.
A second Amazon worker had some information about stock of the game, and confirmed that they'd expect it by February:
Unfortunately we do not have an exact date for it to be in stock as of yet. You may think of to contact Rockstar for further information. We are expecting it next year by February, but no clear date is guaranteed for now.
The PC version of the game is not listed anywhere on the website for pre-order just yet.
While the word of an anonymous Amazon employee is far from official, this latest GTA V PC release date rumor does coincide with other reports that have come out since the game's initial launch in Sept. In October, Intel exec Chris Silva told PC Gamer that GTA V's console exclusivity was likely a pay-to-play scheme cooked up by Sony and Microsoft who (allegedly) bribed Rockstar into keeping the game off of PCs through the 2013 holiday season.
The day after Silva's reveal, a new report from Eurogamer stated that the GTA V PC release date would come in the first quarter of 2014.
Multiple industry sources have indicated the open world game, currently available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, will come out on PC in the first quarter of 2014.
So now instead of just an anonymous Amazon employee we also have an Intel exec and eurogamer calling for a Q1 GTa V PC release date. Rockstar has not said anything official about a Pc version, but did go so far as to say there would not be Xbox One and PS4 versions of GTA V. Whether you want to see that as confirmation by way of denial is up to you, but it's not exactly a surprise that Rockstar would want to release a GTA V PC version. An online petition requesting one already has more than 600k signatures. That's a lot of potential customers.
Other clues regarding a GTA V PC release date came shortly after its release when hackers got into the actual code of the game. There were references to aGTA V PC game found in both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. On the Xbox 360, someone posted a Pastebin file via Reddit that found references to "PC configuration overrides" in the code of the game. The GTA V PC clues found on the PS3 had a similar feel. Here's the relevant code as identified byWorld's Factory:
985459 - PC - [PT][PB] Crash - > game_win32_beta_dx11.exe!strRequest::Release() Line 47 + 0xf bytes C++
614622 - [LB][PT][LDS][DX11] Blooms too much on smog weather setting.
632447 - [PC] All the phones are very dark and hard to read
496009 - [PC] Debug picker seems to be non-functional
(no x64 prebuild cover) - Boot checks completed only.
Although they haven't given us any official word, Rockstar may have also revealed their intentions behind a GTA V PC release date by posting a job listing that essentially asks for someone to help build the PC version. PC Gamer broke the story about the listing that was spotted on the Rockstar Leeds website. In advertising their need for a Graphic Programmer, Rockstar posted the following:
Rockstar Leeds are currently looking for a talented graphics programmer to help bring our latest titles to the PC platform. Working together with the other Rockstar studios, you will be responsible for maintaining the studio's uncompromising quality bar, delivering the highest quality PC experience possible.
Although neither of these clues points to the rumored Q1 GTA V Pc release date they do strongly support the game's development. Again, all the other GTA titles have come to PC so there's no reason to think a GTA V Pc release date won't happen. The big question is when? Right now, rumors point towards February/March, but PC Gamer makes a strong case that fans will get to see the GTA V PC release date next summer.
If we look at all games in the Grand Theft Auto series since Vice City, we can see that it's about 462 days, on average, between the announcement of the game and the announcement (not release) of the PC version. It's a slightly more reasonable 212 days between the first console release and the PC release.
If we take the average time between console and PC announcement and add it to GTA 5′s original announcement date of October 13, 2011, that should have put the PC release date announcement around January 17, 2013. No such luck. Assuming they're going to make us wait just as stupidly long as they did for GTA 4 (821 days from the first E3 tease, for the record), we'll be hearing about a PC release date around January 11, 2014. Every main series entry since Vice City has failed to announce a PC ship date until after the first console version shipped.
On the off chance that Rockstar makes us wait as long for a PC announcement as they did on GTA 4, and as long between PC announcement and PC release as they did on San Andreas, we've been shoved back to July 4, 2014.
Regardless of when the GTA V PC release date is, I think a major concern for Rockstar will be figuring out how to stop rampant modding and cheating from spreading on the PC version of GTA Online (if it even has one). There has already been numerous cheats and hacks discovered for the console versions, and many fans (myself included) have gotten tired of being brutalized by GTA Online cheaters who can afford to purchase tank after tank after tank. And, with the tantalizing (but still unscheduled) prospect of major heists coming to GTA Online, fans have to wonder if a hack-heavy PC release would slow things down even further as Rockstar has to divert more resources into trying to keep the game fair and balanced.
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