As some of you may recall, prior to the re-release of the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, I had written an article stating that expectations had to remain at bay.
Part of that came from the fact that in the previous year, Cyberpunk 2077 had left me completely disillusioned. The other came from the fact that Take Two continues to have one of the most profitable online games to date, in the form of Grand Theft Auto 5 Online. So, it would be unwise to think that it would attempt to cannibalise one of its biggest success.
Although, despite my predictions, I had never imagined that Take Two would miss the mark so spectacularly, to the point that it would put me off from purchasing the game at launch.
Similarly to Cyberpunk 2077, the first few days of release were absolutely horrific, as players began to notice a multitude of bugs and reported it across the web. The expectation for many was already low, however Take Two still managed to disappoint them (myself included).
GTA Trilogy was a buggy mess — with GTA III on the Nintendo Switch being the biggest offender; as in certain situations, the bugs were so intense that it rendered the game unplayable. This was not an experience players expected to face, especially from Take Two’s Rockstar, who have been responsible for the release of a number of fantastic games over the years, including that of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
So players knew that Take Two was capable of more — much more. So with that in mind, more than 5000 users flocked to review websites to relay their experience. As of writing this article, GTA Trilogy currently stands at a 0.6 rating on Metacritic. One of the worst ratings on the website to date.
With all the commotion, Take Two was left with no option but to admit fault and offer users a compensation for such poor release, which in this case was by offering players the previously delisted Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas free of charge. Leading me on to one of the many deplorable tactics employed by Take Two on the brink of release.
Prior to the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition, there had existed three Grand Theft Auto games — San Andreas, Vice City and III. These had been simple ports from the PlayStation 2 era and were never on the same level of quality as that of the later titles such as GTA IV and 5.
Despite the shameful quality in which those games had existed in, many faithful players had taken it upon themselves to improve it, by creating a number of mods and releasing it to the wider audience, allowing as many people as possible to enjoy it in a more improved state.
For a number of years this had not been an issue. That was until a few months before the release of GTA Trilogy, where Take Two decided to pursue those responsible for creating and distributing the previously harmless mods in the form of DMCA notices.
If that was not enough, Take Two also delisted the previously released ports of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Vice City and III. An act that would’ve most likely been ignored if incorporated in a different timeframe, but given how this was a few months before the release of GTA Trilogy. It led many to believe that this was an attempt from Take Two to stop new players from purchasing and playing the older version, and instead be forced to purchase the newer and more expensive alternative. In other words, people believed this to be a profit- motivated move.
However, back to the topic at hand. Following the appalling condition to which Take Two had offloaded GTA Trilogy. It not only apologised to its disappointed fans but it also offered the previously delisted games free of charge and promised to resolve the glitches that were present at launch.
Now to some of you, being offered the previously delisted Grand Theft Auto games free of charge might seem like a nice gesture. However, it must be noted that this was offered to PC users who had no access to the game at all. Yes you read that right. Some consumers had paid for a game that they could not access at launch. Reason? Those responsible for remastering the games had forgotten to remove a controversial feature from the game. So taking those things into consideration, you might start to wonder whether the previously cheap delisted games, now being offered to PC users as compensation truly made up for that fact.
Now, if you’ve been following this closely, the previous Grand Theft Auto ports were delisted, mods were pursued with DMCA notices, the GTA Trilogy games were released in horrendous form, PC users were initially unable to play the game and were instead offered a previously delisted game.
Everything was going horribly wrong for Take Two, and the only saving grace was the promised patches to the many bugs. So how did that fare?
Well, for the most part the most glaring and embarrassing bugs are no longer present. You are no longer presented with a fogless San Andreas or even faced with a cursed zoomed in face of CJ. However, there are still some smaller bugs present in the game, and these seem to be staying for the long-term; as Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, stated the following in a CNBC interview regarding the recently released GTA Trilogy title “We did have a glitch in the beginning, that glitch was resolved.”
Comments which caused for many to be angry, particularly as it leads to the perception that the situation at launch was one simple bug, whilst also signifying that the game is currently bug free, which is again untrue.
In the end the GTA Trilogy currently presents itself in a better form. However, some and myself included would argue that this is how it should’ve been released to begin with, rather than having the many bugs addressed weeks into its release and solely due to an online uproar.
