GTA 6 may skip Nintendo Switch 2, former Rockstar developer says

Grand Theft Auto VI is shaping up to be the biggest release in gaming history, according to industry analysts, but one thing seems increasingly certain: Nintendo Switch 2 owners shouldn't expect to play it anytime soon, if ever.

Former Rockstar Games developer Jérémy Hartvick, who was part of the team working on GTA VI up until 2020, provided an answer to this question in a recent interview with Kiwi Talkz. 

According to him, the audience that the game is targeting and the audience of Nintendo’s portable devices have nothing much in common.

Those who have been interested in the game will own or purchase that console on which it comes out.

Hartvick didn't rule out the technical feasibility of a Switch 2 version. He acknowledged Rockstar could get the game running on the hardware, but only with heavy compromises to visuals and performance.

This combination of factors, along with the disparity between the audience and the product in question, makes porting the game difficult to sell from a business perspective even if we assume that it is going to become a top seller.

More interestingly, Hartvick has made a statement about the possibility of running GTA VI on a smartphone. He noted that with some work, Rockstar could make this game operable on mobile devices due to the existence of streaming technologies.

It is more likely that he is talking about cloud gaming technologies and not about porting it to mobile devices as such, but it allows room for speculation. In turn, emulation and translation layers like those of FEX and Proton by Valve have proven that demanding games can be run on ARM architecture.

For now, Nintendo's newest handheld looks set to sit out one of gaming's most anticipated launches.