That GTA Remastered Trilogy Appears to Be Real

Very few game series have been quite as influential as Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto titles. And now, it looks like we will be getting remastered versions of Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas.

This remaster has been rumored for a long time now. Part of this is wishful thinking among franchise fans, but Take-Two Interactive yanking down classic GTA mods from the internet added fuel to the fire. And, of course, Take-Two confirming that they had three remastered games in development intensified the rumors even further.

Now, however, inside sources have confirmed to Kotaku that the titles in development are remastered versions of the influential Grand Theft Auto trilogy of games from the PS2 era. The sources claim these games will run on the Unreal engine and will sport a new UI, but the overall goal is to not lose the spirit or feel of the original games.

These remasters should be coming out around late October or early November. It looks like they will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia, PC, Switch, and mobile phones. And Nintendo fans should be particularly excited at the prospect of playing these classic titles on the portable Switch once they launch.

Of course, the plans for launching these remasters have changed over time. Once upon a time, they were going to be a reward for players who pre-ordered the upcoming next-gen ports of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online. Plans eventually shifted to selling these games separately in early 2021. Now, after delays related to COVID-19, it looks like the games will come out in late 2021 instead.

And there is both good news and bad news regarding this release. The bad news is that devs are focusing on console releases first, so there is a chance we won’t see PC and mobile versions of these games until 2022. The good news is that the three games will be sold in a single package, which is reminiscent of the highly successful Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Fortunately, this release is in good hands. The remasters are being spearheaded by Rockstar Dundee. Before being purchased by Rockstar, this Scottish development team worked on titles like Crackdown 2, Crackdown 3, and the Master Chief Collection. Sources claim this team is also working on porting GTA V to next-gen consoles, and based on how well these titles sell, we may see remasters of games such as the original Red Dead Redemption.

If you buy this remastered trilogy, which game will you be playing first? Let us know in the comments!