With GTA VI confirmed for a simultaneous PS5 and Xbox Series X launch on November 19, anyone without a current-gen console already has a real decision to make. A breakdown from PCMag lays out how the platforms actually stack up on price and performance - and the short version is that the two aren't as evenly matched on value as they are on raw power.
GTA VI is priced identically on both platforms: $79.99 for the Standard edition, $99.99 for the Ultimate edition. The base PS5 and Xbox Series X are also roughly equivalent in raw power, so there's no meaningful performance gap between them at launch. Where they diverge is console pricing itself: a 1TB PS5 runs $649.99 against $799.99 for an equivalent Xbox Series X, and the disc-less digital editions come in at $599.99 and $749.99 respectively. Since GTA VI is launching as a digital-only release regardless of which console you buy, the cheaper all-digital PS5 becomes an especially easy sell on price alone.
Standard PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles are expected to run GTA VI at 30 frames per second. Sony's PS5 Pro should push past that with higher resolution and better performance, though Rockstar hasn't detailed exact numbers yet - it'll cost $899.99. On the budget end, the $499.99 Xbox Series S has noticeably weaker specs, but Rockstar has a track record of making its games work well on lower-powered hardware (Red Dead Redemption 2 shipped on the previous console generation), so it should still be a perfectly playable way into Vice City.
No PC version has been announced, but Rockstar has followed the same pattern on every recent release: launch on console, then bring a PC version roughly a year later with the graphics and mod support to match. A Nintendo Switch 2 port is even less certain, though not far-fetched - the hybrid console already runs older Rockstar catalog titles like the GTA Trilogy and the original Red Dead Redemption, and the fact that GTA VI is already scaled to run on the comparatively weak Xbox Series S suggests a Switch 2 version isn't out of the question down the line.
Weighing price, power and overall popularity, PCMag's recommendation lands on the PS5 - in whatever form, standard, digital, or Pro - as the better pick for most people deciding between the two current-gen options at launch.
This is a price/performance analysis built on publicly listed console prices and Rockstar's own launch-platform announcements, so it's tagged analysis rather than an official Rockstar recommendation. Reporting via PCMag.