GTAVoclock updates every Wednesday at 5pm GMT on YouTube.
GTA5 isn't confirmed for PS4, of course - but given its estimated $138m development cost, we doubt publisher Take Two is ruling it out. Industry analyst Michael Pachter agrees, telling Gamertag radio that GTA 5 will appear on PS4 "Eventually. But not at launch" - a view echoed by Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz.
GTAV's delay from 'Spring 2013' to September 17, 2013 led to increased speculation about next gen development. Rockstar's newswire was quick to address 'conspiracies' but failed to elaborate. "To those of you saying or seeing various conspiracy theories about there being some other ulterior motive for this delay, rest assured that they're all nonsense - literally the only reason we've delayed the release is because we want the game to be as good as it needs to be."
To be clear: GTA 5 will debut on PS3/360 - almost certainly on September 17 barring a near-unthinkable further delay - and this explanation makes sense. Rockstar's 'biggest open world' ever requires a fastidious level of polish, and we can only imagine the balancing issues when trying to create dynamic missions and populating such a vast expanse.
However, being cynical / realistic, this ambiguous statement closes no doors. Months ago, our weekly GTAV YouTube show @GTAVoclock predicted that GTA 5 would make the leap to next gen and the reasoning holds. It'd be *relatively* cost effective to develop across PC/PS4/Xbox 720, and the reward could be huge - especially given the likelihood of DLC.
We've investigated eight ways PlayStation 4 can transform GTA 5 below - based on confirmed specs, features and historical precedent - with videos and insight from our weekly GTA show GTAVoclock. It's not to be taken too seriously, but Rockstar has a history for optimising its games to suit the format, as the videos in this article prove.
1. 1080p and 60 FPS
It doesn't sound like a seismic leap, but GTA IV on PS3 'only' ran at a natively rendered 1152x640 before being software upscaled - hence the slightly fuzzy, warm glow compared to the 360 version. The frame rate varied between 23FPS (for intense missions like Rigged to Blow) and up to 29FPS (for missions like Final Destination).
Rockstar has a history of exploiting a format's unique features, and the in-game TV shows ran at a higher resolution on PS3 than 360 (with multiple camera angles) due to the presence of the Blu-ray drive. To see how GTA 5 might look on PS4 (based on cutting edge PC mods of GTAIV), plus what we can learn from Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4, watch the video above.
2. Draw distance and 8Gb GDDR5 RAM
It's hard not to overstate the importance of PS4's huge internal ram. It uses 8Gb of GDDR5 RAM (a considerably faster form of memory than standard DDR3), compared to the 512Mb in PS3. That's a 16x leap in internal memory, when console generation leaps usually bring a 6-8x increase. PS3's 512Mb RAM was also hampered by its split architecture, as outlined in the video below, using the example of Skyrim.
Bottom line: a huge volume of RAM allows more textures etc to be held in memory, allowing for considerably greater draw distances (how far you can see into the horizon), plus less 'pop in' - both factors that have affected previous GTAs. PS4 also has a 6x Blu-ray drive (compared to 2x in PS4), so stealth installs of data, like we saw in Dragon's Dogma, should be quicker.
Comments
10 comments so far...
sbradley88 on 6 Mar '13 said:
I shouldn't have read this in work cause now I have a big wet stain on my pants
chciagoweed on 6 Mar '13 said:
Too damn bad gta v be on ps4 anytime soon
chciagoweed on 6 Mar '13 said:
Too damn bad gta v won't be on ps4 anytime soon
wwinterj on 6 Mar '13 said:
This and to be honest I don't want it to be period. Build a new engine and a new GTA for next gen consoles. Wait until the systems have a large enough fan base. Don't waste time, money, effort and resources porting the game that only a handful of people will buy.
Mortal Mad Matt on 6 Mar '13 said:
I agree. Why waste time and money porting GTA V when they could build a next-gen GTA from the ground up? We'd have to wait even longer fro a proper next-gen GTA if they ported GTA V first.
Imaduck on 6 Mar '13 said:
. Physics
. Animation
. Detail in environment, from newspapers blowing about to birds in trees
. Realistic lighting cycles
. Smarter AI
. Better quality sound
. Interactivity with surroundings
. Size/scale
sammikid on 6 Mar '13 said:
Too bad its going to happen and i'm glad it will. I will purchase it on PS4 and have the better version.
It won't waste effort and resources as the PS4 is developer friendly and would just be a port of the PC version of the game having similar PC architecture this time round.
Can't wait, just one more reason for me to purchase PS4 on launch day
Very_Silver_Ownz on 6 Mar '13 said:
This and to be honest I don't want it to be period. Build a new engine and a new GTA for next gen consoles. Wait until the systems have a large enough fan base. Don't waste time, money, effort and resources porting the game that only a handful of people will buy.
I agree. Why waste time and money porting GTA V when they could build a next-gen GTA from the ground up? We'd have to wait even longer fro a proper next-gen GTA if they ported GTA V first.
Because its gonna take an age for GTA 6 to even come out so a next gen port of GTA V would be brilliant. If you don't want a next gen GTA V port then don't buy it but why would you not want others to play it ?
Plus once I get a PS4 I really don't want to be getting the PS3 out just for GTA V. I'm sure it would sell pretty well as well to make it worth Rockstar's effort as new owners will want a new game to play.
beastie on 7 Mar '13 said:
I don't think GTA6 will be a massive difference anyway, the next gen consoles aren't super computers, I hope they do port GTA5 to next gen consoles, really they would be stupid not to, as it means they will sell double the amount, who isn't going to buy GTA5 as soon as it comes out, and who isn't going to buy a much better version 6 months later on their shiny new consoles?
flyfletch on 7 Mar '13 said:
I wont be able to hold out and buy this on the PS4/720.....I so want this game, ill probably buy it twice, once on the PS3 or 360 and once on either of the new systems. Thats how much i love GTA....