I don't know why everyone is forgetting Rockstar's own launcher. Everyone I know bought it on that because:
a) 'Lesser Evil' than Epic Games;
b) Complete Edition for the same price of the Standard Edition--$60;
c) Even on other launchers it'd still use the launcher (so what's the point); and
d) Free GTA: San Andreas.
The game has a lot of bugs, glitches and runs like ass on the majority of PCs (whether it's incredibly demanding or badly optimised is another matter). No wonder its sales are slow. Also, GTA V is a real-life simulator more than anything, it'll surely beat a wild-west focused game.
I have watched like 30 minutes of the first and second episode, and it bored me to death. I've always preferred games over movies and shows, so maybe that's why it didn't click with me. Glad people are enjoying it, though.
If the rumors are true that next-gen consoles are basically a trimmed down Ryzen 7 3700x+RTX 2070, 2020's CPUs and GPUs are going above and beyond (AMD's 7+nm Navi 20 & Ryzen 4000, Intel's 14+++nm refresh, and Nvidia's EUV 7nm). It's time for upgrade anyway. And there's always Graphical Settings to play with in order to run the game smoothly. I don't even think it'll be THAT demanding.
"They want their games available on more platforms"
You mean their platform. Don't forget that Microsoft considers PC an 'Xbox family member' basically because 95% of gaming PC's OS is Windows. They tried more than once to control it, but ultimately failed.
Have you ever heard of Counterplay Games before? They are a small team that worked on two games so far, Destiny 2 and Duelyst. Not particularly an experienced triple-A studio.
Plays perfectly fine, you say? Go play that game on PC, the original not the HD one. It was and still is terrible. No mouse aim (aim with WASD, move with arrow keys in 2007!?)? Check. No aim-walk? Check. No keyboard mapping? Check. Moving a tank-disguised as Leon? Check. Lack of dedicated QTEs buttons HUD (press button 1 to evade the boulder, the fuck?)? Check. Inferior graphics to consoles despite releasing 2 years later? Check. Low resolutions only? Check. Flat textures (even the HD version...
Not even a $5,000 PC can give you Photorealism in real-time gameplay. You are way too ambitious. The way to Photorealism is Ray Tracing, and we are still taking baby steps towards it.
The RX 480 was 5.4TF, the GTX 980 was 4.8TF, by that logic, the 480 should have been more powerful. Yet, the reality, GTX 980 was 20% more powerful. TERAFLOPS MEAN NOTHING.