Rockstar has today apologised for the launch state of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition in a post on its official website. The studio writes: "We want to provide an update regarding the unexpected technical issues that came to light as part of the launch of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Firstly, we want to sincerely apologize to everyone who has encountered issues playing these games."
The remastered collection of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas has received widespread criticism since its launch due to a copious amount of bugs and glitches as well as distaste directed at its art style. The post continues: "The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect." The collection was review bombed as a result on Metacritic.
A PS5, PS4 update is scheduled to release in the coming days, and it is just the first in "ongoing plans to address the technical issues and to improve each game going forward. With each planned update, the games will reach the level of quality that they deserve to be." Rockstar then asks buyers to stop harassing the Grove Street Games production team on social media.
To make up for the poor launch, Rockstar will be granting PC players access to the original versions of the three titles through the Rockstar Games Launcher. This offer will stand through until 30th June 2022. However, it will not be extended to purchasers of the PS5 or PS4 versions. The Rockstar blog only makes note of providing this goodwill gesture to PC users, and you can read more about that through here.
The post signs off by saying: "Once again, we'd like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while we work through these updates to ensure these games meet everyone's justifiably high standards." Our GTA Trilogy PS5 review went live last night, highlighting just how poor of a remaster it is. "Rockstar built its reputation on attention to detail, and while all three of these games still come highly recommended, this disappointing compilation will go down as a stain on the label’s record," we concluded.
Do you accept Rockstar's apology? And how do you feel about the fact PC purchasers are being handed access to the original versions once more, but PS5, PS4 players aren't? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source rockstargames.com]
Comments 57
Time will tell how serious they are, fingers crossed it’s a genuine commitment to putting it right.
So much for constructive criticism. Rockstar are just like stop moaning at the dev team who f***ed it up, and more importantly give us your money.
I'll accept your apology R* IF you make it up to us by doing a proper remaster of Max Payne 3....
@The_Moose a remake of Max Payne 1 and 2 would be better.
Generic PR response. Lets see how the cash cow rerelease of GTA 5 - and ultimately GTA 6 turn out
I mean, if patches are coming as quickly as GTA 6, you might as well buy this when the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel releases its PS6 edition…
Well, they can do that on PC because it's their own store (Rockstar Store), in other platforms they can't just give out the original games.
"It didn't meet our quality standards at launch"
Why launch it then?
At least they finally acknowledge the state of the games. Better late than never but now the work begins
I have been playing GTA 3 for days. I have not really experienced any noticeable errors except for floating particles once and the game has crashed once. Nothing too bad on my end as I have enjoyed playing it so far. I am playing on PS5.
Yeah, the more i play, the harder it is to defend. Theres nothing game breaking but all of the little things start to add up. I do hope they bring the og's back for sale on playstation though, so people can see how bad they actually are.
@MyThoughts31 Give me a remastered trilogy any day but I'm not sure if R* own the rights to the first two games.
Well as ever I shall wait to see how they address this deplorable situation.
I am glad I do not buy games at launch now and hope that they are able to do the games justice but I fear that will be sometime away...
Correct me if I'm wrong but is this the first time Rockstar has apologized for the launch of a game? Never thought I'd see the day. Hopefully this collection gets where it needs to be someday.
Reminds me of when CDPR came out and said "we didn't find any of these issues during our testing" for Cyberpunk 2077. Obviously nonsense.
At least Rockstar says "sorry" in its statement, I suppose...
It would take a lot of work and money to fix these remasters. Not sure if they're willing to put the effort here, since they certainly knew about its state prior to release.
Didn't meet your standards? Sure they did. That's why they were released and sold.
Rockstar's standards are THIS low. They're just apologizing for getting caught/called out on being *****.
@eltomo because money
@MFTWrecks we will make it up by announcing brand new shark cards available for purchase in game to customize your very own cj at any chicken shop
What a load of s**t.
I don’t believe you
"We want to provide an update regarding the unexpected technical issues that came to light as part of the launch of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.“
Unexpected technical issues? Did no one play test it?!
They've got some nerve if they continue with the physical release
I'm still planning on buying the trilogy once it's safe to play. And I'm accepting this apology.
"unexpected technical issues"? They knew exactly what they were releasing. They just expected us to be like the Madden and Fifa crowd, buying up whatever glitchy mess that they release... and unfortunately, they were almost right. Too many people out there that are willing to settle for getting less than their money's worth.
Sounds like they only apologised so they could ask people to stop harassing Grove Street on social media. Lame.
If something is bad, and people review it saying it’s bad, that’s surely not review bombing something?
Better make gta san Andreas available on psn.word up son
I don't think it's really the "technical issues", it's more like the games just look weird and downright awful at certain parts.
While I’m happy that Rockstar has finally broke its silence and gone on record to say that the games will indeed receive updates, the fact they released in this state at all has stained the company’s reputation to such an extent that it will take years to repair. And rightly so.
Ultimately however, I just hope the GTA Trilogy gets the post launch support the games – and fans – deserve. Fingers crossed that the upcoming physical editions include at least some of the patchers on disc/cartridge.
Add max Payne 2 to the ps store the Xbox just got backwards compatibility with all 3 games
We didn’t get away with it. Damn. If only we’d have bothered to test whether it lived up to our standards.
Rockstar have become the very thing they used to so accurately satirise.
Yeah... nah... Thanks for the memes though.
@RenanKJ I think you'd have to go full on Realm Reborn to fix this
It just sounds like a typical corporate greed situation of "rush it out for Christmas sales, money now, fix later".
I dislike how gaming has become more corporate and greedy. I mean it was always sort of like that but in the 80's and 90's Devs actually gave a damn about game production and fun.
Hopefully Rockstar themselves will be fixing the game's, this is the problem with using thrid party companies if they mess up even though you have nothing to do with the remasters it's you're reputation on the line. The originals are a lot more worth playing on PC because of mods, on console it's a total different story.
@LiamCroft something else regarding these games that deserves an article; Vice City's Platinum is unobtainable. The horrifically ill-advised 'Take The Cannoli' Trophy pretty much required a rubberband exploit in the PS2 versions, was changed from Gold to Silver for the remaster (proving that GSG were aware of its existence and are happy with how ridiculous it is), and was broken in the process - people are meeting the unlock requirements but don't get the ding.
Check PSNProfiles' stat tracking, both versions of Definitive VC have this issue.
I see this as nothing but words. I remember when I used to account rockstar as one of the best game developers. While I have no doubt that they still are, but it feels like they spiralling down really fast. Grove Street games in other hand deserves all the criticism, you need special kind of ability to ruin games like that. It's even more funnier how community of modders already managed to fix most of the issues.
@Texan_Survivor That’s 11 platforms you listed not 10 lol
I’m currently playing Vice City now on my Series X and with almost 15 hours of play I’ve not experienced any issues like crashes or bugs. Same with San Andreas but I’ve only put just over 2 hours on that. GTA III on the other hand, I’ve had a few issues. With over 36 hours of play it had crashed 8 times and I noticed it dipped well below 30 FPS at times while it was in performance mode, as well as things like flickering textures. But despite that I managed to 100% it and I’m still happy I pre-ordered. I’ll look forward to what patches do to the games though.
Bugger off with that nonsense.
As for the rest of you: stop getting all excited over remasters.
The idea that they didn't know what state these remasters were in when they released them is an insult to our intelligence.
They simply thought they could get away with it. Rockstar, CD Projekt Red. There just are no decent games companies anymore.
Unexpected?
My arse.
"unexpected technical issues"? That's the biggest load of... What, did they not play test the games? If it didn't meet their expectations, why release it? It's a quick cash-in. A quick and coldly calculated move.
Do they want a pass? Make it an upgrade from the original trilogy and then allow users to pick which version to play
I guess we'll see how big this patch is. If it's only for minor stuff than this apology is a bunch of phooey.
All that's missing in Rockstar's generic P.R. response is inserting the South Park BP executive"We're Sorry!" gif with the baby seal!🙄😂
"Unexpected technical issues",...? Really,despite the QA? Or are you more surprised the the golden halo of marketing this budget mobile port with the same culled 45+ song list as a "definitive edition remaster" hasn't worked as well as you hoped to get away with such a poor job?
If it was "held so deeply to us as it is to you",wouldn't Rockstar have put their hand up to handle the job in-house to Take-two?
If they were at all serious with any of this P.R.spin, they'd be taking the Definitive edition remaster off the digital store fronts,offer refunds to those who want it,put those GTA Online shark card profits towards restoring as many of the 40 odd missing song licenses back in,hire the modders they served DCMA strikes to in-house to do a proper job & ensure steady frame rates for all older & new gen owners.
I don't endorse harassment of Grove Street Games, but when they & their CEO decide to post tone deaf "everything is awesome!",posts about what was a sub standard effort,you're asking for trouble.
@LiamCroft the patch was released this morning. Patchnotes on the Rockstar website.
“went live last night, highlighting just how poor of a remaster it is. “
You gave it a 5 out of ten… that’s not poor - that’s average.
Sort it out lads. Seriously.
@Robinsad this is lost on a lot of people but push square say “our review went live last night, highlighting just how poor of a remaster it is.”
They gave it a five. So average. But they claim it means poor.
🤣
I don’t get the quality thing, they say it does meet its standards, yet they shipped it. I understand the need to release but given this game was only a mere rumour till what 2 months back. Surely the issue is the publisher trying the cash in on the Xmas market. This is just the latest issue of preorder a game and get a dud. But rockstar will sort it, not that it’s any good to the people suffering now. But first world problems eh
I believe that the true Definitive Edition would have been the reverse engineered code complete with certain plugins. Hopefully something will result from the legal battles in the long term which will allow for such development, but it seems that they're intent on killing off the mod scene for the original games too.
@Beyondclem According to the developers it sounded like they'd been working on this for 2 years. If that's accurate, I can't believe that noone from Rockstar or Take Two had seen no issues. At least Cyberpunk had a working PC version as an excuse, GTA seems to have problems on all platforms.
Another apology by a game development company? It’s over a year since I bought Cyberpunk 2077 and I’m still putting off playing it until the PS5 version. Hopefully things won’t take quite as long this time. Never mind though. As they say there’s plenty more games on the store, eh?
You could fix every. single. bug and these would still be an embarrassing stain on Rockstar’s portfolio.
Bugs are one thing, but the art style can't be fixed. Of course it's a matter of taste but the direction they've chosen is not for me. I think something went terrible wrong in overseeing this project by R*.
@Ichiban final fantasy 10 and 12 were great. And if my favorite game is Remastered and if its quality i will still be exited.
Its just a pity because with more effort i woild have totally bought the game for Vice City such a pity.
I don't believe them, hard pass on buying this anytime soon.
how could Rockstar Games, a publisher and developer know for her highest quality games, dint know this game was broken? ridiculous this.
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