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Rockstar Games has finally come out and officially announced Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. This comes after multiple leaks strongly suggested that Rockstar was working on remasters of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The latest leak happened just three days ago on October 5, when it was discovered that Rockstar's own launcher contained hidden code mentioning all three titles.
This updated release of all three titles will come out for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via the Rockstar Games Launcher. Those releases will happen "later this year." Mobile ports will happen some time next year. There is no word on if other PC platforms will get this release or if it'll be exclusive to the Rockstar Games Launcher.
Before we get into some of the details about this release, there is something very important to note: Rockstar Games will be removing all existing versions of these three titles from digital storefronts starting next week. You will no longer be able to purchase these titles as they currently exist. If you already own them prior to their delisting, you can still download and play them where you bought them. The fact that they will remove all existing versions of the game from storefronts while releasing the new version (presumably) only on the Rockstar Games Launcher is definitely a dick move.
Of course, this won't be the first time Rockstar and their parent company, Take-Two, did something shitty in regards to these games. Just a couple of months back, the company issued takedown notices for several mods that were created or in development for these titles. That's not even mentioning how these games were updated over the years to remove songs after licenses expired without any advance warning.
Rockstar did not share much about what is going on with these remasters. They say only that they will "feature across-the-board upgrades including graphical improvements and modern gameplay enhancements for all three titles, while still maintaining the classic look and feel of the originals." More details are presumably coming in the weeks ahead.
We have no idea if these three games will be sold only as a bundle or if you can purchase them separately. We have no screenshots. We have no video. Rumors suggest that the games have been ported to Unreal Engine 4. I would not, however, expect there to be much in the way of graphical eye candy added. Importing the old assets into the new engine isn't going to magically make everything look amazing. If anything, I expect that it will look and feel like the old games, just able to be run at 4K resolutions with some improvements for widescreen support and better controller support on PC.
