Rockstar Apologises For GTA Trilogy Issues, First Of Multiple Updates Due In ‘Coming Days’

Rockstar is a company that, for the most part, has enjoyed near constant success and extraordinary sales. As you’re no doubt aware, though, the recent launch of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was met with plenty of criticism, which will have no doubt been bruising for Rockstar and the development team at Grove Street Games.

Rockstar has now published a ‘note from the Rockstar Games team‘ addressing the criticism and apologising for the project’s issues. It suggests there’ll be a roadmap of multiple updates to bring the games up to a higher level of quality, with the first expected in the coming days for ‘all versions’ of the game.

Firstly, we want to sincerely apologize to everyone who has encountered issues playing these games.

The Grand Theft Auto series — and the games that make up this iconic trilogy — are as special to us as we know they are to fans around the world. 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.

We have 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.

A new Title Update is on the way in the coming days for all versions of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition that will address a number of issues. We will update everyone as soon as it is live.

Hopefully the first patch will address some of the worst issues, such as game crashes, failed mission progressions and perhaps the deeply unpopular ‘rain’ effect, but we’ll see what the patch notes reveal. In terms of the Switch version we were very critical of its performance in our review, while initial Digital Foundry analysis described the Switch port as ‘a big mess’.

Rockstar’s update also walks back on the previous removal of the original versions of the game, to an extent. The original PC versions will return for sale on the Rockstar Store as a bundle, and those that own the remastered trilogy via that store’s launcher will get the bundle for free (through June 30, 2022). There’s no suggestion that the original versions will return for sale on other storefronts, however.

In addition Rockstar has requested that players remain courteous and constructive in their feedback, as it highlights that members of the development team have been harassed online.

In the meantime, it pains us to mention that we are hearing reports of members of the development teams being harassed on social media. We would kindly ask our community to please maintain a respectful and civil discourse around this release as we work through these issues.

It’ll be interesting to see how the first update shapes up, though of course more substantial improvements will likely need more work and time. Here’s hoping that the Switch version gets a major boost in the coming days and weeks.