The controversial GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition continues to create issues over 3 years after it launched. From claims of pettiness to removal of developer’s names on their work, it just got even more messy and taken a strange turn…
This week, the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition was updated across all three games. These patches included a lengthy list of significant improvements. You can read all of them here. The sentiment around these remasters have shifted. Many members of the GTA community are now quite happy with the state these games are now in. Whilst there are still some outstanding issues, the current state is how it should have been at launch.
The Story So Far
Before we dive into the drama, it’s important to get the context of what happened in the past. The GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition made by Grove Street Games. This company had previously worked with Rockstar to port the original versions of games like GTA San Andreas, Vice City, Bully etc to mobile under the name War Drum Studios.
You would be mistaken if you thought they renamed their studio solely after the iconic location or gang in GTA San Andreas. They’re based in Gainesville, Florida and there is a Grove Street neighbourhood located there. That’s where their old office was based. That’s where the name comes from. This change happened during the development of the Definitive Edition for a “fresh start“. Of course, the GTA connection added to it.
A large portion of the GTA community blamed the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition issues on Grove Street Games given they were the ones primarily making it. Though others had speculated they may have been given unreasonable deadlines by Rockstar/Take-Two with just a small team. We don’t know the real story of what happened back in 2021.
The GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition received a handful of patches in the year following launch. There were still major issues though. The mobile ports were what felt like endlessly delayed. After 2 years, they finally came to mobile but the work was not done by Grove Street Games but rather Video Game Deluxe.
There Is Another…
Out of the ashes of L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi, former staffers made this new studio. They worked with Rockstar on porting the 1940’s detective game to VR then did the trilogy’s mobile release with Netflix Games (Side note, 2 of the 3 games are leaving Netflix next month).
Fans were quick to say the mobile release was better than the PC and console versions. They fixed many issues plus included a “Classic Lighting” option. This made the remasters capture the same atmosphere as the originals.
Removal of Grove Street Games?
Console and PC players asked for a year to get the Classic Lighting setting and more fixes. Their wishes were granted this week with a major new update to the collection. Renowned community member Vadim M. spotted the fog effect had their initials in the name.
Among the hundreds of fixes, fans noticed Grove Street Games’ logo had been removed from the splash screen when you booted up the game. The new screen is simply just black text with no art and no mention of Grove Street Games.
Furthermore, some thought Grove Street Games had been removed from the credits and even the mobile version. That’s not the case as GTAnet pointed out. They’re still credited in the game. Removal of any of GSG’s credits would be very disappointing given they still did work even if it launched in a way that many fans were upset about. The splash screen removal is still a little odd.
Since this update released, it is claimed Grove Street Games unfollowed Rockstar Games on Twitter. On Tuesday, the day of the big update, they unfollowed an account as tracked by Social Blade. Given they used to follow Rockstar, it makes sense it was their account. Rockstar still follow GSG.
Grove Street Games CEO Responds With A Twist
Co-founder and CEO of Grove Street Games Thomas Williamson took to Twitter last night to share his thoughts on the splash screen removal albeit vaguely. He said “Speaking entire hypothetically: It’s a d*ck move to remove primary developers from credits in an update, especially when an update includes hundreds of fixes that were provided by those developers that stayed out of players’ hands for years.”
What’s so interesting about his comment is he claims Grove Street Games actually did the “hundreds of fixes” for this update. This suggests GSG did in fact make many of the fixes to the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition. What’s more is they were done years ago and something had prevented them from releasing said updates. Why is this the case if true? This is all very strange.
I’d like to think Rockstar Games, Grove Street Games and everyone else involved can patch their relationship up. Plus, learning some of the behind the scenes details would also help paint a better picture. Given Rockstar’s choice to keep most things a secret, that’s a probably dream too far so we might never ever know. The Definitive Edition’s launch put a minor stain on Rockstar’s legacy but an even bigger one on the smaller team at GSG.
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1 Comment
GAT 5 game is very nice game