Sony and Rockstar Games say that Grand Theft Auto 6 “plays best on PS5,” pointing out several unique features of the PlayStation 5 hardware that the game will take advantage of, and which won’t be available to Xbox Series X players.
A PlayStation Blog post co-signed by Rockstar and Mary Yee, a Sony marketing exec, announces that GTA 6 will make use of the DualSense controller’s integrated speaker, haptic feedback (advanced vibration, basically), and adaptive triggers that provide dynamic resistance according to the activity. GTA 6 will also support the PS5’s Tempest 3D audio and use the console’s ultra-fast SSD hard drive to make load times “near-instant.”
If all this sounds like marketing lines you haven’t heard since the PS5 launched over five years ago, that’s not a coincidence. Sony and Rockstar have a marketing partnership for GTA 6, and Sony is hoping the game’s arrival will finally convince players still using the PlayStation 4 — on which you can still play Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto 5, as well as Fortnite and Minecraft — to upgrade. If there’s an opportunity for Sony to put further clear water between PS5 and Xbox Series X as it does so, so much the better (for Sony).
“For new players who are looking to jump in, it’s a great chance to also see why PS5 is the best place to play,” Yee said in the post. “Players can pick up a PS5 or PS5 Pro at direct.playstation.com (where available) and at local retailers.”
However, the blog post makes no other mention of PS5 Pro, and any enhancements that the more powerful console might bring to GTA 6. This is odd, since if GTA 6 is a golden opportunity to persuade PS4 owners to upgrade to PS5, it’s also a good opportunity to persuade PS5 owners to upgrade to PS5 Pro. And there’s no Xbox equivalent to the Pro, so it will definitely present the most high-fidelity GTA 6 experience available, at least until a PC version launches.
GTA 6‘s PlayStation Store page does note that the game will be “PS5 Pro Enhanced,” meaning that it will get an official patch to unlock its performance potential on the Pro. But there’s no information on what the enhancements are — whether the game will run at a higher frame rate, resolution, or both.
Sony has missed an opportunity to make the case for the PS5 Pro here. This could be because it doesn’t want to muddy its “please upgrade to PS5” messaging with a sales pitch for a $900 premium console. Or, more likely, it could be because Rockstar is still busy optimizing the game for all platforms, and hasn’t found its final performance level yet.
With no PC version, and Xbox far behind in console sales this generation, Sony is treating GTA 6 like a PS5 exclusive. We got our first indication of that today. Whether it will extend this push to an attempt to resuscitate PS5 Pro’s fortunes remains an open question.
Rockstar just announced a bunch of GTA 6 news — here’s everything we learned
Still no new trailer, though