GTA 5 Release Date: PC Version Listing Appears on Amazon Ahead of Spring Launch

PC gamers have been clamoring for a chance to install GTA 5 when it releases this Spring without avail, but a recent listing on Amazon's French website suggests that a Windows version of the sequel is, in fact, scheduled for release. The report comes by the way of VG247, which notes that "the French arm of the online store has a history of being leakier than an 80 year old faucet." Should Amazon's early post ring true, the gateway opens to a large community of modders, many of which created off-the-wall content using GTA 4, such as a conversion which equips protagonist Niko Bellic in Tony Stark's Iron Man suit.

When IGN asked Rocktar Games Vice President Dan Houser if a PC or Wii U version of GTA 5 was in the works, the exec explains that "Everything else is up for consideration. That's all I can give you. The main thing is we are not...we are a third-party publisher. We're not Nintendo, we're not Sony, we're not Microsoft. We love all of them in different ways. But we can do what we want wherever there's the appropriate business opportunity and chance to find a market."

GTA 5 introduces three new playable characters: Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. Players can switch between each protagonist on the fly, which effectively hands over the reins of the remaining crew members to the AI. As a crucial wrinkle in the new entry's formula, this system could hypothetically allow for a number of elaborate heist strategies and could crack open the open-world game past its perceived breaking point.

Back in November, Take-Two CEO Straus Zelnick announced that the Grand Theft Auto franchise had shipped a total of 125 million units. Zelnick attributes the series' success to the developer's patience between each release.

"Our view is it's hard to make permanent intellectual properties if you annualize it, with the exception of sports titles. So far that's proven to be the case. IP that is annualized eventually seems to hit the wall and we don't want our IP to hit the wall," says the CEO.

Keep in mind that Rockstar Games has not confirmed the PC version of the game, so don't internalize this rumor as rocksteady just yet. GTA launches in Spring 2013.