Grand Theft Auto V PC Cancelation Rumor Debunked

Yesterday there was a rumor circulating that Grand Theft Auto V‘s PC release may have been canceled, after Fox Weekly posted an interview with the chairman of Rockstar North’s alleged marketing company Rantic, John Hoffberger, who spoke of Rockstar’s hesitation in bringing the game to the PC.

Related: Rumor: Agent, Rockstar’s Huge PlayStation Exclusive, Has Been Canceled

In the interview, Hoffberger said: “The next-gen console launch dates are still intact, but the PC game launch has been agitating for Rockstar staff.”

He continued: ”Rockstar never wanted to release a PC version of GTA V, but due to high public demand, they were forced to do so.”

Today, Rantic’s official website is down after seemingly being hacked by 4Chan users, who have removed the site’s homepage and replaced it with the words: “Dear Rockstar, Hacked by 4Chan, Give us our GTA 5 for PC.” 

Given the problems Rockstar faced with Grand Theft Auto IV when it was first released on PC, many are inevitably concerned that this rumor could be true. Fortunately, that is almost certainly not the case. So let’s put on our thinking caps and debunk this rather dubious rumor:

1. A search of Rantic, Rantic marketing, Rantic marketing Rockstar and Rantic marketing Rockstar North reveals absolutely nothing other than Google results pertaining to this rumor.
2. Similarly John Hoffberger has precisely zero web presence.
3. LazyGamer.net reports that prior to 4Chan’s alleged hacking of the site, the website of the company had been down for over a year.
4. The most recent use of the domain was for Rantic Records, a site that looks like it was created in 2004. Would a company as huge as Rockstar really leave its marketing down to these people?
5. That a marketing company would risk its entire reputation by leaking such information seems implausible.
6. It’s equally implausible that they would leak this information to a relatively unknown website such as Fox Weekly.
7. When have Rockstar ever canceled a game that they have previously announced?
8. Grand Theft Auto V is still on the Steam store, along with its pegged released date of Fall 2014.
9. Why would Rockstar risk pissing off such a huge demographic, even if its staff was “agitated” by having to bring the game to PC?

So there you have it. This rumor appears to be pure hokum, and if it proves to be true then we’ll take off our thinking cap and live stream us eating it.