The launch ofGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionhas been a fiasco. Arriving on November 11,Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionhas been morassed in controversies surrounding the quality of its ports, both in terms of creative license in upgrading its visuals and technical issues regarding performance and stability. No issue stands out as controversial, however, asGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition’s launch and subsequent de-listing on PC, though Rockstar has since explained why.
FollowingGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition’s launch on PC on November 11, Rockstar had an emergency on its hands. It took down the Rockstar Games Launcher anddelisted the PC version ofGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionfrom its storefront. Buyers had no access to the game, and still don’t, and didn’t know why it was happening, either. Rockstar’s social media simply said it was working on the issue.
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Rockstar has since confirmed that the problem is thatGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionincludes a huge amount of “unintentional files” that it has to remove before republishing. These files are reported to include music found in the original games that it no longer has the licenses for, and even files related to the infamousGrand Theft Auto: San AndreasHot Coffeeincident.
Unfortunately, Rockstar says that it won’t be bringing the PC version ofGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionback until it’s finished removing these files from the game. A timeframe for this process has not been provided. It could happen in days, or it could potentially take weeks. IfRockstarthought it could make the changes quickly, it almost certainly wouldn’t have taken the drastic step of removing the game from sale entirely.
This is, obviously, a disastrous situation. Thousands ofPC gamerslikely purchasedGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionand haven’t been able to play it. Rockstar didn’t tell them what was going on until after speculation, driven by datamining, theoried out that it could be related to unlicensed music. For a company as large and successful as Rockstar, it’s a mystery how things got this bad.
For those hoping to playGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, the why of the issue matters less than when it will be rectified. There is no answer to that question at the moment, however. Rockstars asks thatGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionbuyerssimply remain patient before they’re able to play the game that they purchased.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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