Why GTA 5 might never be released for mobile devices like the Vice City and San Andreas did

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 5 has been one of the most demanded games on mobile devices for many years. Rockstar Games released the game in three different generations of consoles and PCs but is yet to release it on handheld and mobile devices exclusively. Although Steam Deck can run the game, it uses the PC version of the game through the Steam store.

On the contrary, the American gaming studio released a number of its titles on Android and iOS platforms. These include Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas, two of the most successful games in the franchise. Although GTA 5 is commercially more successful than both of them combined, it may never get released for mobile devices.

Note: Some parts of this article are subjective and only reflect the writer's opinions.

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GTA 5 is a massive game that cannot be compressed for mobile devices

Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the most ambitious projects of Rockstar Games to date, and it requires significant hardware power to run properly. The 2013-released title is over 100 GBs on the current date and is subject to increase with future updates and changes.

It has several advanced gameplay functions, artificial intelligence, complex codings, and many more. Compressing such a huge game to run natively on mobile devices is a near-impossible task at the current stage of technology.

The graphics alone require powerful processors that mobile devices lack. Therefore, it is very likely that Rockstar Games may never release GTA 5 for small devices.

The gaming studio only released the 3D Universe titles on mobile devices. Although GTA Chinatown Wars is an HD Universe game, it was designed for handheld consoles in the first place.

Apart from that, Rockstar Games has not released any other HD Universe games for mobile devices, which also includes Grand Theft Auto 4.

Many fans previously reported that certain websites are offering the GTA 5 mobile version for free download. They also found screenshots and gameplay videos running on mobile devices.

You should note that Rockstar Games is yet to officially port the game for Android as well as iOS devices, and all other sources offering the game are frauds.

Following are the platforms where you can play the official version of Grand Theft Auto 5:

• PlayStation 3 (Multiplayer discontinued)
• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5
• Xbox 360 (Multiplayer discontinued)
• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X|S
• PC
• Steam Deck

Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas were very small-scale games compared to Grand Theft Auto 5. Therefore, Rockstar Games easily ported them to mobile devices with a few changes.

However, porting the latest title will require significant changes, which may also downgrade the entire experience. Still, fans are anticipating some good news after the GTA 6 release date announcement.