The Nintendo Switch, a darling for ports from yesteryear and a hybrid home-portable console, is now the subject of speculation concerning a port of Rockstar’s blockbuster Grand Theft Auto V.
Indeed, this would be the equivalent of making a portable version of Grand Theft Auto V, a prospect that would probably get many Switch owners to shell out money for a copy and perhaps even convince some GTA fanatics to pick up a Switch in the first place.
But are hopes of a GTA V appearance on Nintendo’s latest console pie-in-the-sky dreams and nothing more? After all, a Grand Theft Auto game doesn’t evoke the most Nintendo-friendly images with its violent gameplay featuring drugs, violence, theft, crime, mayhem, and more twisted storylines than an episode of your favorite HBO show. In a word, it’s awesome.
Technically speaking, the Nintendo Switch is probably capable of handling Grand Theft Auto V though you probably shouldn’t expect anything on par with the home console or PC versions of the game. Debuting in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto V was updated for the current generation but its roots are in the previous generation. As the Switch has shown, it is more than capable of handling games from that era but GTA just isn’t any old game.
It’s a massive work of art that is constantly being updated, which brings to question to what extent a Switch port would be able to play online, the real driver of GTA’s massive growth. Without GTA Online, the Grand Theft Auto V experience might seem a little shallow on the Switch but it would still be worth having. You can bet your bottom dollar, however, that fans would complain about the lack of or a shaky feature-light version of the online experience.
The most important question is, “what has Rockstar said about a potential Switch port?”
So far, a load of nothing though the company has implied it could be a future project when Straus Zelnick, CEO of Take Two Interactive (parent company of Rockstar) told Games Industry that the company’s projects on Switch have proven profitable for them so far. Since the crowning of Grand Theft Auto V as the most profitable media property of all time, it is hard to imagine that Take Two won’t also try to monetize it on the burgeoning Nintendo Switch. Not just another format, the Switch’s portable capabilities could become a strong selling point for the title but only time will tell whether this comes to fruition. Currently Take Two is gearing up to release Rockstar’s upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that it is hoped will become every bit the sensation that GTA V is.
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