GTA Trilogy fiasco worsens with physical release delay, even as worst bugs get a fix

The physical releases of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive edition have been delayed on consoles.

Rockstar confirmed on Twitter that the PlayStation and Xbox versions of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy have been delayed to December 17, and the Nintendo Switch version is now coming sometime “early 2022.” The physical release was originally set to arrive on December 7.

The release dates for the physical versions of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition have changed.Xbox Series X / Xbox One and PS4 will now release on December 17. The Nintendo Switch version is coming in early 2022.Check your local retailer for availability. pic.twitter.com/6avP8yp6laNovember 30, 2021

This tweet comes after the recent 1.03 update for the GTA remaster that brought a slew of bug fixes and gameplay improvements, including fixing the rain textures in all three games, misspellings on different textures and added cloud cover when you’re at higher altitudes. Plus, a new cinematic camera was added and now the definitive editions of GTA 3 and Vice City aren’t using the menu sound effects from San Andreas.

Crucially, Rockstar has also added a ‘ground haze’ toggle to address the flurry of complaints that the lack of fog in San Andreas made the map feel smaller. And the performance of all three games has been drastically improved.

However, with all the improvements made in this update, the botched character models still need to be completely reworked.

Check out all the update notes here.

The new Ground Haze option adds some fog to the lower areas of the map if you're high up in a building in #GTATrilogy San Andreas.Source: https://t.co/EES8p9yRCo pic.twitter.com/yy5G8QFtqGNovember 30, 2021

Analysis: Houston, we have a problem

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive edition has been nothing short of a meme-ful disaster for Rockstar, so it’s no surprise that the developer has now delayed physical releases. Because of the buggy state of the digital release, the remastered games are in danger of damaging the reputation of Rockstar.

And this trilogy was released after PC modders had already done a wonderful job of remastering these games themselves. San Andreas remastered with mods is vastly better than this Trilogy, with better textures, character models, graphics and gameplay enhancements.

The GTA developer did release an apology for the sorry state of the remaster, saying it “did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect.” It went on to promise that PC owners of the trilogy will receive the classic versions of the three GTA games free of charge. But this hasn’t appeared to quell its customers' anger.

Gamers are now requesting refunds from PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo – even to the point they have now started a Change.org petition titled “We need proper refunds for GTA: The Definitive Edition.”

From lack of story DLC in recent games and its money-hungry focus on GTA Online, this fiasco has just added to the list of grievances gamers have with Rockstar. It’s now in the same spot as CD Projekt Red and Bethesda Game Studios, as all three legendary developers have released botched games that have fallen way below the expected standard.

It looks as if GTA 6 will need to be Rockstar’s saving grace after they fix this Trilogy. But, now all we can do is hope that once the physical editions finally arrive, the game will be in a satisfactory state.