Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition contained three genre-defining classics, but was universally panned for its unacceptable amount of bugs and visual anomalies. The reception was so poor that Rockstar Games has reportedly shelved plans for remasters of Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV.
As per a reliable source with clear accuracy on Rockstar plans, remasters of GTA IV & RDR1 were on the table a few years ago, but Rockstar chose not to proceed with the projects in mind.
The poor reception of the Trilogy DE might be a reason behind that decision.#GTAIV #RDR1
— Tez2 (@TezFunz2) July 4, 2022
The report comes from two different sources that both corroborate each other. Rockstar insider Tez tweeted that the remasters were on the table in the past, but the company “chose not to proceed” with them likely because of the reception to the aforementioned trilogy remaster.
Kotaku then backed up the claim with its own sources. Its report stated Tez was accurate and also that Rockstar allegedly hopes people will forget about the remasters as the team focuses on Grand Theft Auto 6, a game that Rockstar confirmed was in development earlier this year.
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Not all hope is lost since the Kotaku report also claimed that remasters of Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV aren’t out of the question and “could still happen in the future.” However, they would have to come after Grand Theft Auto 6 ships if they do come out.
These remasters were also reportedly never in full production. A later tweet from Tez said they were in the “ideas phase” for years. Kotaku’s earlier report that came before the official announcement of the trilogy also claimed that the Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV remasters were being kicked around and were contingent upon the success of the trilogy remaster.
That success obviously did not happen critically — it has an average score of 53 on OpenCritic — but likely not commercially, either. The bundle was nowhere to be seen on the November 2021 NPD list during its launch month, despite the name recognition of the series. It did claim the 16th spot on the February 2022 NPD list, which was up from its 57th spot the month prior.
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Claims for Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto IV remasters will probably still persist, given how these titles are harder to play on modern systems. Red Dead Redemption never made its way to PC and can’t be played natively on PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 systems (but is backwards compatible on the last two Xbox generations). Grand Theft Auto IV did receive a PC port and is also playable on the last two generations of Xbox, but PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players have no way of playing that open-world game on these newer consoles.
