After a ton of rumors and leaks, Rockstar Games has finally officially acknowledged the existence of their worst kept secret, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. That said, this official reveal is pretty scarce on the details, so we haven't actually learned much new today. Even so, it is nice to finally be able to talk about the remasters as official, definitely upcoming games.
We'd hesitate to call the little announcement video a trailer, because it just uses stylized edits of GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas promotional artwork and the title logo. It's more of a... teaser animation, if anything? A slideshow, even. That is what Rockstar used to reveal the very lengthily named Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.
GTA:TT-TDE is coming sometime later this year — no concrete release date has been revealed — and will contain remastered versions of the free aforementioned 3D era titles. This leaves out Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories for a complete 3D era home run. According to the official reveal, the remasters will have numerous gameplay improvements alongside the visual upgrades.
Rockstar has also revealed the full lineup of platforms the game will be launched on, which includes Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC via the Rockstar Games Launcher and thankfully the Nintendo Switch. The Definitive Edition was rumored to hit the Nintendo platform, but leakers were unsure. Curiously, the game will also be ported to mobile devices later on in 2022.
Rockstar Games will be sharing more information — we're guessing trailers, a breakdown of improvements, screenshots and a release date — in the "coming weeks". Based on that and the recent reports, it seems like The Definitive Edition will be missing the anniversary of GTA 3, the whole event around which the remasters' release is built. That said, we'd love to be surprised.
Leading up to the release, Rockstar will be removing the currently sold versions of GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas from online storefronts. It isn't clear if The Definitive Edition will have a "retro toggle" option like some other remasters out there, or if buying it will include the vanilla versions. If you absolutely want to own the original titles but don't have them yet, it's time to scoop them up.
As The Definitive Edition nears launch, Rockstar Games is kicking off the anniversary celebrations in GTA Online as well. A number of items will be given away to players with a retro vibe to them, the first of which will be the Wasted t-shirt evoking all those time you were brutally murdered in one of the older classics. Other liveries and clothing items will also be released.
Rockstar has also snuck a little tease of the upcoming holiday season update also hitting GTA Online later this year. We traditionally always get a major DLC at the tail end of each year, usually helping Online smash concurrent player records again because somehow this game is still getting more and more people on board.
We don't know much about what to expect, but based on the few brief teasing words posted by Rockstar, we're in for some business related content alongside strange phenomena occurring throughout Los Santos.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition can't be far off, so stay tuned for more news!
