14 DAY TRIAL // Grand Theft Auto V will be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, not for next-generation platforms like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720, as developer Rockstar is quite pleased with current consoles and didn’t encounter any technical limitations.
GTA V is out in spring of 2013, right before the rumored reveals of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, in the form of the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox 720, respectively.
Rockstar, however, believes that a new wave of consoles isn’t needed right now and that it’s wiser to continue making titles for the PS3 or Xbox 360 because lots more people have such platforms.
“Some other people talk about the limitations of the [current] hardware. We don't feel there are that many limitations. We feel we can do some very impressive stuff and do it for a large audience. This felt like the way... There'll be a much larger audience on PS3 than there will be on PS4,” Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser told IGN.
What’s more, the Rockstar boss also claims that the development team didn’t encounter any technical limitations while working on the current consoles for GTA V.
“At a creative level, which is the most important for us, we could say everything we wanted to say and do everything we wanted to do on these machines. We didn't sit there saying, ‘We'd like to do this in the game, but we can't.’ There's plenty of power in these machines.”
Even if Rockstar has recently re-released both Grand Theft Auto III and GTA: Vice City on mobile platforms, Houser emphasizes that the studio won’t start focusing more and more on such projects.
“I don't think we'll be switching our core development over to those any time soon. We love console games, and we think the format is perfect for what we're doing. I would still rather be entertained on my couch than on the bus.”
Do you think Rockstar is right in continuing to focus on current platforms or should it have waited for next-gen consoles?