Some were surprised when Rockstar announced its intentions to launch Grand Theft Auto V on the PS3 and Xbox 360 rather than the inevitable successor consoles. According to Rockstar’s vice president of creative Sam Houser, development of GTA IV was tumultuous and that the refining of development over time for this current crop of consoles will make GTA V better.

“Rockstar is a content company, not a hardware company,” said Houser to Famitsu. “We use the technology we have to create content, and we try not to let ourselves get beholden to the hardware.”

“The fact that hardware’s so mature right now is exactly why we’re able to go on to the next level. GTA IV was our first attempt at a new platform and HD visuals, so the first part of development was seriously difficult,” he explained. “Now we know what the hardware’s capable of, so it’s become a lot easier to move things along and a lot more fun, too. GTA: San Andreas came out at the peak of the PlayStation 2’s cycle, and we put out a really good game thanks to that. All the best games for a console come out at the end of the lifecycle, right So now’s the best timing of all.”

Source: Polygon