Will releasing GTA 5 for Android and iOS be the right choice for Rockstar?

GTA 5 has been out for more than 8 years now, and it has seen three generations of hardware, each multiplying in processing power to deliver a better experience.

With the passage of time and Rockstar's history of porting their older GTA games to Android and iOS, the question of whether or not Rockstar should port GTA 5 to mobile arises. Here's a deep dive into why GTA 5 for Android and iOS would or wouldn't work.

Why GTA 5 for mobile could be the best or worst decision for Rockstar Games

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On the surface, GTA 5 for mobile sounds like a no-brainer. Rockstar's incredibly successful entry could be exposed to a brand new audience and break records worldwide, but building a mobile port of a console grade is easier said than done.

The first challenge developers would face is space constraints. GTA 5 on PC now occupies over 100 gigabytes of hard drive space, something most 64 GB mobile devices cannot hope to accomplish.

The second challenge would be sheer processing power. While it is commendable how far mobile devices have come in the past few years, they pale in comparison to even the most basic gaming PC's and an aging PS4.

To put it in perspective using Teraflops as a unit of graphical performance, the PS4 could output 1.84 teraflops while most mobile GPU's can output anywhere between 0.2 to 1.4 teraflops at max.

If Rockstar were to develop a GTA 5 port for mobile, it wouldn't be a direct port. Instead, what players would receive is a watered down recreation that wouldn't do the original any justice, much like Mortal Kombat and Injustice mobile, which are husks of their console counterparts.

So as of right now, developing GTA 5 for Android and iOS would not be the best call by Rockstar Games and maybe waiting a few years until mobile hardware has caught up could be the better solution