Simple math?  Number of NPCs divided square meters.  

Crowd density does matter, IMO.  Makes towns and cities seem more alive, increases atmosphere.  I played with NPC density with Rebirth and it does have impact, for me.  

I will have to remember to use my calculator while playing so I can be able to notice if the crowd density is good enough

Lol, funny.

To be fair, it is quite obvious when a street is empty versus when crowded.  Play Spiderman 2 on PC, you can easily see the difference between 2 NPCs in New York City versus 40 NPCs.  I don't think it fair to argue the increase doesn't impact atmosphere.  

Personally I would love to see how the Switch 2 would stack up with a day 1 release.  

For those wanting to play the best version, who is to say that people won't double dip if the PC version releases later.  

Also you kind of glance over the fact that PS had sales on Cyberpunk vs a full price Switch release and that PS had 5 extra months of sales that year.  The only advantage Cyberpunk had on the Switch, that I can think of, was a relative lack of competing software at release.

I just think the sales on PC will be there and would like to see a relatively even playing field for consoles at release.

I'm definitely not glancing over Cyberpunk on PS5, IMO it being so far ahead of a new release while it was already sold to so many people is way more relevant.

Rise of the Tomb Raider had a delayed release on PS4 and was a XBO exclusive for a year, and when it released on the PS4 VGChartz estimated it to outsell the XBO version in just 3 months, it sold more than the XBO for that whole year and also the 2 months the year before when it released, so 3 months overtook 14 months, despite the XBO also having a launch and not a random year down the road when it was selling marginally.

About GTA VI, if the PC version is also day one and they can have a NS2 version too, sure, but giving NS2 priority over PC doesn't make sense, IMO.

I doubt this is true. The only thing that would support this claim is the fact that the GTA launch is considered a massive, even record breaking media launch among all media and I'm Sure Rockstar would like to make it even bigger with S2 in the mix, but.. yeah. I think they have their hands full with the other platforms. We'll see.

I get that, but it's still not good PR. And I can't imagine anyone at any company being okay with it.

It's confirmation bias. You ignore/downplay the things that create internal conflict, and you embellish/overplay the things (regardless of how few) that fortify your life-choices. We're all susceptible, although very few of us are aware of it when it's happening. And even when you make people aware of it, most of them will confirmation-bias that awareness  right out of their minds before even considering it (usually by using an ad hominem fallacy toward the person who brought it to their attention). It's a real problem.

For me, I just want to play third party games on whatever platform they run the best on. I have multiple platforms. I don't care which hunk of hardware does that better. I just want the best experience, tech/spec wise. That's all that matters to me.

I highly doubt this but it would be very cool if there was a surprise day 1 launch PC and Switch 2 versions. Records would get absolutely shattered. I imagine there has been increasing regret at Rockstar about the decision to launch only on PS5 and Xbox Series considering the former hasn't been making up for the massive decline of the latter. Launching a game on the latter but not on PC is an insane thing to do in 2026.

(i) “Really fighting” are my words, not his. Doesn’t mean it’ll happen—heck, Microsoft’s having a hard time getting Starfield working on NS2—but that there does appear to potentially be interest at Rockstar.

(ii) Why not PC? TBH I think it’s because Rockstar wants the least amount of controversy possible with this launch. There has never been such a thing as releasing a game which demands strong PC specs and receiving acclaim at launch— most PC gamers don’t have the hardware to support many modern games running at 1440p 60fps as much as they like to deny this reality. That’s the reason so many great games like MHWilds, Dragon’s Dogma 2, first-party Sony, etc., have been torn to shreds by the Steam community at launch: They simply don’t have the hardware to match the software, and so, they blame the devs.