A Note from the Rockstar Games Team RE: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

Rockstar Games : We want to provide an update regarding the unexpected technical issues that came to light as part of the launch of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.

[chrisx]

What a pity that rockstar of all people can fall so low. Lost a big chunk of respect for them after this scam.

[-Foxtrot]

Typical “f*** it they’ll buy our games anyway” attitude they’ve gotten

[bloop]

The next GTA installment was typically always the big one that I looked forward to more than any other franchise, and I don't think I could possibly care any less for VI seeing the direction they took with V regarding the online, to the Housers jumping ship, and then this absolute mess they somehow thought was ok to release. The suits have clearly taken over at R*, but I think (and hope) thanks to likes of Battlefront 2, Anthem etc. people have somewhat woken up to this bullshittery and it will hit them where it hurts....... in their pockets.

[justadelusion]

and sadly, they are correct

[CS7]

I’ve defended Rockstar many times on here for their seeming “quality first” approach.

It is a shame to see them put out this product.

Who is left that we can respect on the AAA scene? Naughty Dog?

[jBlakeeper]

Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, and Insomniac are the only ones I can think of.

[TheHan]

Lmfao, neither of those cause they can’t even create a proper MP mode. Xbox would have the best studios, best MP and polished games over all. It’s why Xbox studios was the highest nominated gaming studio.

[annoyedgamer]

Have you seen The Last of Us 2? I don't think you can trust anyone.

[PS-Gamer-1986]

TheHan

Lol

[ABizzel1]

@annoyedgamer

Yes, the second game in the series to win GOTY and be the most awarded video game of all time.

[savedsynner]

I would argue CDPR is still trustworthy. They had one major stumble but their other games have all been well supported and enjoyed. We'll see what Witcher 4 looks like and if its as bad as cyberpunk 2077 then ill no longer trust them.

[rhcpfan]

@ABizzel1

Shame about that Metacritic user score though. Maybe it's really low compared to the first game for a reason?

[Rainbowcookie]

There are a few on Sony still and a few others. If you look at previous Rockstar games it still feels like a company that looks for quality. I think the pressures of releasing this before someone else makes money off your product and trying to please a fanbase made them outsource or get someone in to help with this. , but someone must have slipped up. I won't just ake this one blunder and start thinking they tried to screw people over.

[Hikoran]

@rhcpfan Yeah because little crybabies couldn't handle it. FYI - YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THAT ANGRY AT THAT SCENE. THAT'S THE POINT. lol.

[KingofBandits]

lol naughty dog is a soulless shell of their former glory. With just another pandering SJW d bag running the ship into the rocks. Naughty Dog died when Amy left.
imo all of these put out solid games and care about the product they give consumers:
Sucker Punch
Insomniac
BluePoint Games
Capcom's Dev team 1
Id software
Platinum
Square-Enix (a few meh teams aside)
FromSoftware
Guerrilla Games
Playground Games
Turn10

[MocBistro]

From Software

[OcelotRigz]

From Software.

[seanpitt23]

Yeah naughty dog broke my heart with TLOU 2.. never trust any developer

[Viljong]

Sony first party studios.

[Muigi]

The gaming industry as a whole is screwed. CDProject, Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Rockstar. If its not some half ass release or money grab its a news breaking allegation.

[ABizzel1]

That's because they're all finally being held accountable collectively by their employees and by the "educated", "enlightened", and "woke" gamers.

When you play quality games you expect a higher degree of quality from every developer especially those who are on their 3rd or greater game within their franchise. Technical issues should have been a thing of the past during the PS4/XBO era, especially after developers finally learned how to optimize for the HD Era (360 and especially PS3).

So launching games with consistent / noticeable performance issues and frame-pacing issues deserves the backlash.

Launching incomplete games and patching later, deserves the backlash.

Doing cash grabs like this deserve the back lash.

We've seen too many game launch on lesser hardware, with great performance and bare minimum issues for this to be happening on PS5 and Series consoles. We've too many game launch with a complete package or at least the promised package and without major faults for this to still be happening. And we've seen too many GOTY / trilogies / collections / remakes / remasters for something of this level to be taking place.

[KingofBandits]

The companies you mentioned CDProject and R* aside have always been shit, its just that as online integration worked its way into all aspects of gaming their cash grab practices became more obvious. if you don't follow gaming news you won't know or care. the reality is most gamers don't care about "scandalous" headlines or SJW causes, its just nonsense to stir the pot. gaming has never been bigger and as it grows its always going to bring to light issues.

[neutralgamer1992]

Just please put the care in, take your time, pay attention to community feedback and do justice to these remasters. R* themselves should help and not leave this all to a developer known for making mobile ports

I wonder how many original R* members are there now because Leslie and even one of the houser brothers left the studio

[DigitallyAfflicted]

It's a definitive pass... Trilogy

[ToddlerBrain]

Such bullshit. “It didn’t mean out standards,” but you released it anyway. Did anyone play the games before release? Seriously.

[NoFanBoy]

Rushed it out for the holiday season.

[SullysCigar]

Translation: "Oh crap, they're on to our holiday cash grab. Quick, run the emergency 'generic humble communication' to keep that money train chugging!"

You know R*, play testing is a thing - and you do it before giving something your seal of approval. Stick your apology and be better next time.

[andron]

Unexpected my behind. They f'ed up hard all the way..

[ANIALATOR136]

"The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect."

Then why did you even release them? Surely somebody noticed how poor they were. But no it was simply a quick cash grab while you work on GTA6 for the next 2/3 years

[Killer73nova]

Money. That’s why. Perfect time for the holidays

[-Foxtrot]

They sound exactly like CD Projekt Red

“We didn’t know”

Bull…shit

[spicelicka]

Sad thing is they're probably just working on GTA 5 online.

[camel_toad]

They certainly F'd up but at least they're coping to it and giving the untouched originals for free as a "we're really sorry" gesture.

They clearly know they really hurt their image as a dev you can count on.

[jBlakeeper]

I don’t see it hurting them much, but it is the first Rockstar product I can think of that is shoddy. I’m really hoping this isn’t the beginning of poor quality for them. RDR 2 may very well end up being the final memento of Rockstar as a company before they lost their way.

[MajorLazer]

Has anyone even read the whole thing? The trilogy was worked on by Grove Street games, R* had nothing to do with it other than approving it I guess and now they'll be working on it themselves. It says there'll be continued updates till it reaches the level of quality you'd expect from a R* product. Yes, it sucks they didn't do this before but silving lining is it will be improved a lot eventually.

[SullysCigar]

^ @MajorLazer, " R* had nothing to do with it other than approving it"

And that's the problem. The buck stops with them. They had one job to do (before counting the stacks of cash) - quality assurance.

If it doesn't cut the mustard, it's not ready. This is on R* and they're only getting their hands dirty and apologising because of the backlash.

Reputational damage should have been considered way before this stage.

[Relientk77]

You rushed them out as cash grabs, just be honest.

[-Foxtrot]

I know the launcher went down on PC fir 5 days or something but two free games, what about console owners, those versions are equally as shit

[Ninver]

i was thinking the same thing. console gamers make a larger chunk of sales figures. what do console gamers get?

[metalgod88]

This is a total nightmare situation for Rockstar. They have not one, but three games to fix. I have no idea what went on during the 'development' of these remasters, but dude, it obviously wasn't tested and if it was, they let a LOT of things slide on through. Some of these bugs that exist, I just don't see getting past QA, if there was even a proper QA team put in place. I mean..the rain bro. The rain. How does that get by? I just have so many questions.

It's baffling how this got the green light to move to release. I guess this just goes to show that we can't trust any development studio anymore. Rockstar is/was the standard and even they're pushing out garbage that needs a million patches to make it playable.

Refunds need to be given because this is absolutely ridiculous. And, at the very least, they made the previous (functional) versions accessible again. However, what happens to all the mods they took down? They need to hire the modders because apparently they can do a better job than the actual devs can.

[Stanjara]

Interesting, when the stock goes down these apology letters start to appear. Meaning - don't ask and bully our platform partners for refund.

[isarai]

"Unexpected" 🙄😒

No way in hell these were "Unexpected", almost all issues are clear as day within the first hour of starting either game.

[ajax17]

"unexpected technical issues"
unexpected my ass. they knew full well that it was going to suck. fuck Rockstar

[jBlakeeper]

Yes, it’s why no footage was released. One look at the characters in this game and I’m like seriously? Feels like I’m playing The Simpson’s Road Rage which was a very good game but not what these are supposed to be.

[Profchaos]

Good that they finally acknowledged the problems the community has been flagging since it's launch.

It still shows that these games were not put through a proper qa process if they were "unexpected problems"

This really highlights a problem with outsourcing Rockstar oversaw this production but Grove St games were the ones making it they are not a rockstar studio and the community has questioned the quality of their work before so it's astounding to see them get the job to port these games again when they showed they just don't get why these games are special and make the wrong call constantly. Not saying rockstar isn't at fault they absolutely are they chose to outsource and not enforce a qa process they also chose to allow the game to release in its current state so they are just as accountable if not more than Grove St games. I hope this isn't the end of their remastering phase as I'd still love to see more of their games remastered like bully, manhunt, midnight club and max Payne

I've encountered two game breaking bugs in vice city just playing the missions 1 in Copland when the bomb detonates in 1 second rather than 5 and other in the bank job where Hilary just doesn't turn up to the bank.

San Andreas somehow seems to have been the focus of the remaster the bugs and glitches here so far have not been with the mission scripts like vice city but there's still a lot of problems in the game world.

I don't think rockstar can possibly address all the concerns the community found from typos in text to mission glitches or ugly models, incorrect geometry and poor clipping at a minimum in just a week to me this is a cyberpunk level of patching and overhauling I would of expected to see them working on these games for another year at least.

It's great to see they reversed their decision on the classics and people have access to them still.

[Nacho_Z]

It's a shocking level of quality control. Should have been easy for them given their resources and the age of the games.

My hype for GTA6 bottomed out a year or so ago but it's gone even lower now. The old Rockstar would have never let this happen.

[Profchaos]

Yeah have to admit my hype for any future Rockstar game bottomed out when Leslie benzies and Dan houser departed. Those guys were the leads on pretty much everything rockstar did.

[outsider1624]

What gets me is that Rockstar shut down the gta community who gave free updates, mods etc. Hell, there was already one who fixed the rain issue. What the heck Rockstar!!?

To hell with Remasters, I'll take a Remake when it's being made from ground up with love.

[SyntheticForm]

They would only show penitence if the sales were underwhelming. They must be underwhelming. Hopefully they mean it when they say they're going to address the issues, because they really are unacceptable.

I wouldn't think it'd be hard to slap a new coat of paint on an old game, but what do I know? I know that this is subpar as I've been playing it and it's just very rough.

[DOMination-]

Not into GTA myself so haven't been following this much - but I believe this was released to coincide with the anniversary of one of the games? The project reeks of someone thinking six months ago "wow, it was 20 years since San Andreas, we should probably do something for that!" and this is the result. It was probably just some school kid on their work experience. I joke of course yet it wouldn't surprise me. It looks like a school project after seeing those rain vids the other day.

It should have only spent 10 minutes in QC before somebody shut this project down. Rockstar's apology is just embarrassing, considering their resources.

[Agent75]

I can’t recall any glitches with the original games on PS2. And back then, no bug fixes. All these years on, there’s numerous niggles. Game testing has been buckled for years. Release game buckled, throw out the fixes, nobody’s bothered other than the consumer.

[dumahim]

"unexpected technical issues that came to light as part of the launch"

My BS meter just broke as it went off the scale.

[1nsomniac]

Jesus, what’s wrong with you people. People are talking as if they’re not 100% sure whether Rockstar knew or not!

Yea it was outsourced but it’s their game. They knew every single little minute detail about every single aspect of the game.

The stupidity of this generation allows companies to make these ridiculous statements and legally get away with it.

…. And then for Rockstar to play the victim card. WOW!!! Never thought I would say this but Rockstar, scumbags!!

[anast]

"We knew is was jank, but we sold it to you anyway." Good thing the dislike function is being removed from youtube. This way those stocks will be protected after the customers get ripped off.

[Mr_cheese]

Poor excuse.

You used to be the go to developer and granted, when you release a new game (which is few and far between) your attention to detail speak volumes.

The problem is that you're not releasing new games and the practices you show inbetween these releases is chipping away at a once renowned reputation.

[jBlakeeper]

Yep. Like why is GTA 6 taking so long? There is no excuse for it other than development problems or pure laziness. And I’m going with a little bit of both. Dan Houser leaving was not a good sign. I’m sure game development used to be a lot more fun than it is nowadays. It’s a lot harder now and there’s so little incentive to create anything new. The game studios have become akin to movie studios. Releasing proven ideas and nothing else.

[Rachel_Alucard]

I hate how they removed the originals off Steam and are now making you go through their launcher to obtain them instead of back on Steam where they were. They are masking it as a kind gesture, but it's the fact they are side stepping the problem.

[jBlakeeper]

They act like they had anything to do with this remaster. All they did was slap their name on it. Rockstar themselves obviously put zero effort into it or it would have come out a whole lot better.

[fitofficial]

I'm glad they're addressing it, but I stopped playing GTAV and swore I'd never play it again when I was about 60% through the story, every stat and item blanked out for all my characters for absolutely no reason, I contacted support and they basically told me it's a known issue, they're not fixing it, and to kick rocks. Can't say this is my first bad Rockstar experience.

[Knightofelemia]

How quality control missed the trilogy I am surprised Rockstar are usually on their game when it comes to a title. I can't remember playing or seeing a Rockstar game that has more bugs then a roach motel. Probably thinking more about porting GTA V to Series X and PS5 and the trilogy was an after thought.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

I wish this is for all platforms.

[dbcoops]

Did you learn nothing from CDPR?

[CobraKai]

I know people are upset, but the harassment is uncalled for and unnecessary

[-Hermit-]

What harassment? All I see is people calling them out on their BS. They are using the "harassment" claims to try and paint themselves as a victim.

[CobraKai]

Have you seen the internet? People are just as vile and disgusting as big corporations. From changing Peter Parker’s face to a royal fustercluck like Cyberpunk’s launch. Gamers will say extreme comments and send egregious emails towards a developer. Not called for. Under the money, the corporation, the suits, there’s still everyday people being pushed to the brink to make the games we play. You would have to be naive to think there’s no harassment.

[GoodGuy09]

Yea we all know they released it so it could sell for the holidays. Its gta so sad thing is, it will sell a ton.

[Ninver]

the rockstar of past is gone. these new corporate suits could care less about the consumer.

[MADGameR]

It's no surprised that Rockstar has not moved forward i.e. making GTA6 (maybe I'm wrong, maybe somewhere in the dark they are hard at work on a next gen GTA game) but it seems like Rockstar is milking this franchise with little effort because of the massive amounts of money they are making.

[Good-Smurf]

Unexpected?
That shows how careless they are about their product you don't simply went from making beautiful insanely detailed sandbox at the expense of fun gameplay (RDR2) to we can't get a shinier 20 year old game to run at locked 60 fps on latest consoles and its buggy mess across three titles.
It's pretty clear they completely outsourced the project without any supervision from Rockstar themselves or those who cared are gone or pushed out leaving with those that only understand money "we have to get it out in time for holiday season, just do it"

[N8]

I knew rockstar was doomed after most of the originals left. It's just board room members making the decisions now. That's why the houser brothers left

[Abear21]

All companies and people stumble. Musicians put out crap albums, most artists’ work is average with public seeing only the great pieces, writers struggle from project to project. Not giving them a pass…BUT Rockstar had given me so many amazing gaming moments they get a pass here imo.

[pietro1212]

They don't get a free pass for knowingly and willingly put out a product of this quality. This is unacceptable especially from a company such as Rockstar.

[jjb1981]

Now that gaming has become mainstream, so many shiny suits are jumping on the opportunity to monetize games without caring about quality.

[antikbaka]

I'm SOWWY UWAAAA

[staticall]

Oof, i got a whiff of Allen Brack from this response. «We didn't live up to the high standards that we set for ourselves» is basically what they're saying. Yet, they did what they did, they only care about money.

I'll say this, most of the AAA developers and especially management got too lazy, too sure that they can do whatever they want and it will just be met with some criticism at worst, but no real consequences.

And if it will start hurting them financially (by the way, did Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo pull the game from their shelfs?), they can get some empathy points, by saying not to harass their developers (but they'll not show you any example or explain, what they mean by harassment). Does it mean swear words? Constructive criticism (remember Jessica Price and how she responded to a real constructive criticism? I do)? Saying they did a bad job? Or stuff like «i know where you live, be afraid»? If it's only the latter, then yes, such people should be faced with legal charges and, IMO, every reasonable person despise them. But i feel like they use it as a blanket statement.

Not to mention, it's a huge group of studios with gigantic publisher on the back. There's no excuses. Where are the old games for consoles? How will you pay back to your loyal (yet dumb?) customers, who bought this? Just saying «We sowwy» doesn't cut it anymore.

[Damrock]

" Unexpected technical issues that came to light "

Lol...yeah

[starforge71]

More like a piss poor cash grab is all oh how the mighty have fallen

[manusche]

With the money they make with gta online they should use it to make a trilogy remake themself to say sorry not use another studio for cash grabs I not falled in that trap luckily

[KingofBandits]

Way too little and way too late. They did not have to launch this in this shape it was not even announced so its not like delaying it 6 months to a year would have mattered. They knew it was shid, dropped trou and left it right in your living room anyway. I don't care how much its patched, I will never buy it. Its like the Master Chief Collection, never should have launched in such a crap state

[HeliosHex]

GTA definitive glitches edition.

[Dfooster]

Sounds like they got the CDproject Red PR team to write that statement for them.

[asapas8]

Like we didn't see how they have treated fans with this joke GTA V has turned into. A greedy company that lost its way completely in front of earning millions and millions. How shameful and pathetic. Never going to buy something of them ever again, before people run like sheeps to test it first

[TimmyTesticles]

R* lived long enough to become the bad guy

[mastershredder]

As if this is some new “low” for rockstar :/

Come on now. They have had plenty of shady highlights.

[lellkay]

So disingenuous