PC Gamer's spinning the 30fps target as a win for PC players, and I'm not buying it

PC Gamer put up a piece about how waiting for GTA 6 on PC feels better than ever now that Rockstar's confirmed a 30fps target on PlayStation and Xbox. The angle is basically "console players get a compromised version, so us PC folks can sit pretty." There's even a line in the source insisting this is not copium, which is exactly the kind of thing you write when it's a little bit copium.

I get the impulse. Nobody wants to feel like they're missing out on launch day while everyone else is driving around Leonida. But let's be real about what the 30fps confirmation actually means. It means Rockstar is squeezing this thing onto base consoles at a frame rate that was standard two generations ago. That's not a knock on Rockstar necessarily, it's a massive game and they've always prioritized visual density over frame rate. But it's not the flex the article's framing suggests.

The part that bugs me

The whole "better than ever waiting" thing assumes we know when the PC version shows up. We don't. There's no PC version announced. Nothing. So the comfort of skipping the 30fps console experience only works if you're fine not playing the game at all for an unknown stretch of time while everyone else is posting clips.

Waiting is only easy when you've got a date to circle on the calendar.

That's the whole problem. If Rockstar said "PC in spring 2027" tomorrow, sure, I'd happily wait and play it properly with a decent frame rate and my own setup. Until then it's just a void.

Also, the Pro exists

The 30fps target applies across PS5 and PS5 Pro from what we've seen reported. The Pro gets ray traced shadows and some extra clarity, but the frame rate ceiling doesn't move. So the idea that console players are getting some rough version while PC players get the real thing ignores that there's no real thing available yet.

I'll play it on whatever I can get it on when it's out. November 19 is close and the temptation to double dip on a PS5 copy is going to be brutal. But let's not pretend the PC wait is some enlightened position. It's a wait. Pc Gamer can dress it up however they like.

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Source: PC Gamer · Curated content.