GTA 6 Is Officially Playable On Last-Gen Hardware

Published Nov 11, 2026, 7:00 AM EST

James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.

Grand Theft Auto VI is finally almost here, and after the community did years of waiting to see exactly what Rockstar has been cooking up, their patience is about to be rewarded. Well, hopefully it is, but everything we have seen from the game so far has been pretty spectacular, and it's difficult to see how it's not going to be great fun, barring some Cyberpunk 2077 scale performance issues.

The game is initially set to arrive on consoles, with a PC release at a much later date, and there are plenty of folks out there who have bought hardware specifically to play the game when it comes out. That said, if you aren't in a position to do that, it's looking like you'll be able to play the game on much older hardware, with a solid internet connection.

The Xbox One faded into irrelevancy some time ago, as almost every title moved on to the platform's latest hardware, in the Xbox Series S/X. As such, given how dense and graphically demanding GTA VI is set to be, there would seemingly be no hope of actually playing it for those who only have that console.

Not so, though, if recent revelations from the developers themselves are to be believed, as the wonders of modern internet speeds and cloud gaming are about to come to fruition in a big way. As first reported by PureXbox, the official pre-load notes for GTA VI from Rockstar contains a very interesting tidbit about the Xbox One, which reads as follows:

"The game will also be available via XBOX Cloud Gaming on XBOX Series X|S and XBOX One consoles, utilizing XBOX Series S graphics settings. And as with all cloud streaming, connection speeds and other technical factors may influence game performance in ways that would not impact local gameplay. GTA VI will also fully support Remote Play on PlayStation and XBOX"

That's obviously a huge win for affordability in gaming, particularly considering just how unaffordable modern gaming hardware is, thanks to the knock-on effects of greedy AI date centers.

The only real caveat is that all of this comes at a time when Xbox themselves have made Cloud Gaming less affordable in the first place. As of November 2026, Game Pass subscribers no longer have access to unlimited Cloud Streaming, with Essential, Premium, and Ultimate members getting 5, 10, and 15 hours per month respectively.

That obviously won't be enough to work through much of what is expected to be a very big game. That said, if players aren't too bothered about playing through it quickly, it could still be a great option, particularly if a console upgrade simply isn't possible. Equally, 50 hours of cloud gaming is available to non-subscribers for just $12.99, which is probably going to be the best method for most who are locked to the Xbox One.

In any case, let's hope that as many people get the chance to play GTA VI as possible, because there's something quite uncomfortable about how many people across the globe are being priced out of an increasingly expensive hobby.

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