Take-Two Interactive recently hosted an investor call and earnings report wherein they dropped some unexpected news — at least three as of yet unannounced "iterations of previously released titles" are being developed. No further information was revealed and we have no way of knowing whether these are Grand Theft Auto remasters or not, but we're hopeful — and various signs do point to this possibility.
Earnings calls are usually not the time for new games to be revealed, and since no information beyond the existence of three unannounced remasters was given, we guess this technically isn't a reveal, but being given confirmation on such a call is unusual.
The phrasing used — "iterations of previously released titles" — is an admittedly broad descriptor, and Take-Two currently has three already announced games in this category being released this year: (1) GTA 5 is getting Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 ports as Expanded and Enhanced, GTA Online is getting a standalone release and another of Take-Two's publishing labels, Private Division, is releasing Kerbal Space Program on consoles.
The news comes after a slew of older GTA mods were taken down by Take-Two legal teams, which all shared the trait of somehow reworking or remastering official content from titles like GTA: San Andreas, Vice City or others. These fan-made remasters were all non-profit and seemingly in line with Rockstar's official modding policy, but were targeted nonetheless.
Chief among the theories as to why those mods were taken down is that Rockstar Games is working on its own set of remasters. In this case, free, fan-made mods that do the same thing would be direct competitors of the official product, and naturally many would gravitate more towards a free option. By taking down these mods, the company has cleared the way for official remasters.
A lot of the news lines up. This year it's also the 20th anniversary of GTA 3. Alongside it, Vice City and San Andreas comprise the three 3D era games, which were the ones mainly appearing in the mods taken down. There are three remasters coming... the math checks out.
Of course, lacking any official confirmation means these predictions are on somewhat shaky ground. It's definitely a possibility that we won't end up getting GTA remasters after all — though considering how much outspoken demand there exists for these, it would be a major surprise. The GTA franchise is booming like never before, and it would be a waste of huge profits not to capitalize on that.
Either way, we'll have to wait a bit more. The next GTA release we do know of is the ports of GTA 5 coming this November.
