‘Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy: the Definitive Edition,’ Is Not ‘GTA VI’

Rockstar Games has confirmed what we all knew: it’s releasing a definitive edition of the original Grand Theft Auto trilogy. Rumors of the forthcoming remake or remaster have been circulating online for months but Rockstar confirmed the games today with a teaser and the promise that the games would be coming soon. Once again, this is not an announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6, a game I will never live to see.

In September, Rockstar announced a next-gen version of Grand Theft Auto V and fans didn’t take it well. That’s understandable as we’ve played V for almost 10 years across three different consoles. The reaction to the “definitive edition” of the original trilogy—III, Vice City, and San Andreas—is warmer, but there’s still an undercurrent of disappointment.

A beautiful remaster of Vice City will be a welcome sight, but like V before it, the original trilogy is available pretty much everywhere. You can play them right now on your phone. At least for now. Over the past year, Rockstar has been delisting the original trilogy from various online storefronts. If you want to buy the original games, you have until October 11 before they vanish from pretty much everywhere. GTA publisher Take-Two has also spent the past few years suing and serving takedown notices to modders who had successfully reverse engineered the code for GTA III and Vice City. 

Rockstar has said it’s working on Grand Theft Auto VI and rumors and leaks persist, claiming it’ll be a return to Vice City. But we’ve seen no footage of the game and Rockstar has said little about what it might actually be. All I know for sure is that I’m tired of playing old Grand Theft Auto games, no matter how pretty a remaster might make them.