The classic editions of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas - given to those who purchased the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition - are claimed to be unplayable due to a lack of updates allowing the games to be played on modern hardware. In acknowledging the GTA trilogy remaster's disastrous launch and removal from its platform, Rockstar promised to bring about future updates to improve the game's performance and graphics. Additionally, the classic versions of the GTA trilogy returned to the Rockstar Launcher, and PC players who purchased the Definitive Edition via its launcher received them at no additional cost - and will continue to do so until June 30, 2022.
The long-anticipated GTA trilogy remaster officially launched last month across consoles and PC a month after its initial announcement. The remastered collection allows modern audiences to experience Rockstar's groundbreaking PS2-era classics overhauled with enhancements and improvements; though the release is seeing continued backlash from fans due to numerous graphical issues, bugs, and lack of polish. Unfortunately, the issue further worsened when the Rockstar Games Launcher stopped functioning shortly following the remastered trilogy's release, and the Definitive Edition's PC version was subsequently taken down, angering those who demanded refunds for the removed collection.
According to popular Grand Theft Auto informant Ben Turpin, the free classic editions of the GTA Trilogy given to those who purchased Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition are unplayable on modern Windows. Turpin tweeted that these PC ports haven't been updated since their initial releases in the early 2000s, and players cannot download mods to enhance them due to software limitations. Though users are probably happy to see the original games back on the platform, Turpin questions why Rockstar hasn't updated them - especially since those behind the "re3" modding project previously made the games functional on the latest versions of Windows.
The reverse-engineered re3 and reVC fan projects render enhanced versions of GTA III and Vice City playable on and ported to a variety of consoles - such as the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita and the Wii U. These modified titles feature 4K widescreen support, a rotatable camera, Xbox controller support on PC and no loading times between the game's locations. Due to its popularity, however, the project easily caught the attention of Rockstar Games' publisher Take-Two who issued a DMCA takedown to remove the project on Github before filing a lawsuit, accusing the team of copyright infringement. The group is fighting back, however, as they have recently filed a counterclaim against GTA publisher Take-Two, and the ongoing lawsuit is yet to be settled.
Rockstar Games pledged to address more of the remastered collection's issues and brought back the classic editions of the GTA Trilogy to the Rockstar Launcher. Despite this, more problems have arisen regarding the maligned title and its ongoing issues - all of which seem to be growing everyday. It is currently unknown whether developers will update the outdated PC ports of the original three titles in the future, but it seems unlikely, seeing as Rockstar has its hands full reviving the remastered collection to reach its full potential.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition is now available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It will launch separately on iOS and Android in 2022.