Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition was released on November 11 on all major platforms including the Switch. However, for folks who bought the game on PC, they’ve been unable to play the game since just shortly after it was released. Now three days later, fans are still unable to access the game they bought days ago with no update from Rockstar on when the GTA Trilogy will become playable again.
The remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy has had a very, very rocky launch, with players across all platforms reporting various graphical bugs, gameplay glitches, and other annoying changes and tweaks to the classic PS2-era games. But while players on Xbox One or PS5 or Switch are dealing with annoying bugs and odd visual problems, players on PC are left unable to play any of the games included in the collection.
Shortly after the games launched on PC on November 11, Rockstar yanked them from the store while the Rockstar Games PC Launcher collapsed, rendering other Rockstar titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 unplayable for many. After 18+ hours of downtime, the launcher came back online late in the day on November 12, but Rockstar explained that the remastered GTA Trilogy would remain unplayable.
Now three days after launch, it’s still missing from the game’s official store page, meaning nobody can buy it on PC right now as the game didn’t launch on Steam, only Rockstar’s store. Also, if you did buy it, you still can’t play it because it requires an internet connection via the Rockstar Games Launcher.
Rockstar has been extremely quiet about the whole situation. Its official support account on Twitter hasn’t tweeted in nearly a day and the last actual update on the situation came via a tweet on November 12.
According to Rockstar via that last update, the reason the remastered GTA games remain unplayable is that the company is currently removing files that were “unintentionally included in these versions.” No word on what files are being removed, though many speculate it could be all the unlicensed songs hanging out in San Andreas’s code. Or perhaps it’s all the dev comments and leftover bits of the infamous “Hot Coffee” sex mini-game code dataminers have found in the collection.
As you might expect this has led to a lot of frustration and many, many refund requests. Even though the remasted collection hasn’t been receiving much in the way of positive praise and is a bit of a mess, players still spent $60 on these games (which are entirely singleplayer and don’t have any online gameplay, BTW) and now three days later they still can’t play them.
One assumes Rockstar and the devs behind the remasters, Grove Street Games, are working hard to get these games back on the PC launcher. Until then, I’d suggest players go buy the classic games on Steam while they wait for these remasters to come back, but Rockstar yanked those already. So... I guess play GTA V?
UPDATE 11:41pm, November 14, 2021: Rockstar says the game is now back and available to buy/play: