“Grand Theft Auto 6” has been a long time coming. While Rockstar Games officially announced the game in 2023, audiences have been sitting on pins and needles for the game since 2013. Because after the majesty of “Grand Theft Auto 5,” it’s easy to see who would be excited for the next entry. While we had to wait through one entire console generation and most of another, you can still play the game even if you don’t have the latest Xbox so long as you are willing to stream it.
While “GTA 6” will release natively on the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 — PS5 owners received a free graphics update just in time for the game — you don’t actually need these consoles to play the title. Today, the Xbox team announced in a blog post that you can use Xbox Cloud Gaming to play “GTA 6” on the Xbox One at launch. Also, since you can stream the game instead of downloading it onto your console, you won’t even need to pre-install “GTA 6” before you can play it. That’s 212 GB of space you can use for other titles. Al you’ll need to do is wait until November 19 at 1:00 a.m. EST. So, if you live in California, that means you might be able to play as early as 10:00 p.m. on November 18.
Don’t expect the best performance
Given the ever-increasing prices of modern Xbox consoles, streaming “GTA 6” with an Xbox One sounds like the most frugal option. Plus, even though the press release mentioned the Xbox One by name (since you can play Xbox Cloud games on your Amazon Fire TV stick) you might not even need an Xbox One to play “GTA 6.” But you will be missing out if you stream the game.
Normally, cloud gaming lets people play titles at high graphical settings and with superior framerates. It’s a bit of a shortcut for people who want to play the latest games but don’t have the best gaming laptop (or PC) on the market). Meanwhile, everyone who plays “GTA 6” via Xbox Cloud Gaming will get limited graphics settings, equivalent to the game running on an Xbox Series S. Granted, the performance will far surpass anything the Xbox One can achieve natively, but it’s still disappointing.
Due to the nature of how cloud games work, anyone who plays “GTA 6” with the Xbox One will experience lag, so the game won’t feel as smooth as it would if played natively on a Series X or S. More importantly, audiences who plan on using their Xbox One to play the game will need a great internet connection and a subscription, either to Xbox Game Pass or piecemeal cloud gaming time sessions. On the bright side, Rockstar Games plans to add more of its library to Xbox Cloud Gaming down the line, so people who use the service will get even more out of their subscription in the coming months.