Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition turned out to be anything but (check out my less-than-enthusiastic review here) and now after several days of silence, Rockstar has issued an apology for the sloppy ports. Rockstar is promising to bring the remasters back up to snuff via updates, with the first arriving “in the coming days,” but in the meantime, they’ve also announced they’ll once again be making the original versions of the GTA Trilogy available on PC as a bundle. Additionally, everyone who bought the Definitive Edition through the Rockstar Store will get the original versions of the games for free.

　　The Grand Theft Auto series — and the games that make up this iconic trilogy — are as special to us as we know they are to fans around the world. 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.

　　We have ongoing plans to address the technical issues and to improve each game going forward. With each planned update, the games will reach the level of quality that they deserve to be. A new Title Update is on the way in the coming days for all versions of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition that will address a number of issues. We will update everyone as soon as it is live.

　　While the response was a bit slower than I’d have liked, kudos to Rockstar for taking steps to make this right. Rockstar also mentioned that some members of the Definitive Edition development team have been receiving abuse from fans, which is unfortunate to hear – any issues with the games is almost certainly down to a lack of money and resources allocated by Rockstar and Take-Two. If a studio is given a job too big for them to handle by a publisher looking to save cash, it’s not really the individual devs’ fault if the project doesn’t turn out well.

　　Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch.