Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is a 2021 compilation of three action-adventure games in the Grand Theft Auto series: Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). Developed by Grove Street Games and published by Rockstar Games, all three games are remastered, with visual enhancements and gameplay upgrades. The games feature different protagonists and fictional locations within the same continuity. Grand Theft Auto III follows silent protagonist Claude in Liberty City; Vice City, set in 1986, features mobster Tommy Vercetti in Vice City; and San Andreas, set in 1992, follows gangster Carl "CJ" Johnson within the state of San Andreas.
The two-year development focused on maintaining the look and feel of the original games; the physics code was copied from the originals, and artificial intelligence was used to automatically upscale textures. The development team studied the distinctive qualities of the original games. They added several colouring, weathering, and lighting effects, as well as new assets from Grand Theft Auto V (2013). The team consulted with the original developers at Rockstar North when upgrading the character designs. Prior to release, existing versions of the three games were removed from sale from digital retailers, which led to criticism from audiences and journalists; in response, Rockstar restored the original versions on the Rockstar Store.
The Definitive Edition was released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 11 November 2021, and for Android and iOS devices on 14 December 2023. The Windows launch was marred by problems with the Rockstar Games Launcher, rendering it unplayable for three days. The game received poor reviews; critics generally praised the enhanced visuals, upgraded lighting, improved controls, and added gameplay mechanics, but criticised its technical problems, art direction, and character models. It was one of the lowest-scoring games of 2021, and was the subject of review bombing on Metacritic. Rockstar apologised for the technical problems and announced its intentions to improve the game through updates.
Contents
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition contains three games in the Grand Theft Auto series: Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). They are action-adventure games played from a third-person perspective wherein the player completes missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, the player can freely roam the open world and has the ability to complete optional side missions. Some areas of the games become unlocked as the player progresses through the storyline.
Grand Theft Auto III is set in Liberty City, loosely based on New York City; it follows a silent protagonist, Claude, who is betrayed and left for dead by his girlfriend during a robbery and embarks on a quest for revenge that leads him to become entangled in a world of crime, drugs, gang warfare, and corruption. Vice City, set in 1986 in the fictional Vice City (based on Miami), follows mobster Tommy Vercetti who, after being released from prison and becoming caught up in an ambushed drug deal, begins building an empire by seizing power from other criminal organisations in the city. San Andreas is set in 1992 within the fictional state of San Andreas, consisting of three main cities: Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas (based on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, respectively); the game follows former gangster Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home after his mother's death and is drawn back into the criminal life while clashing with corrupt authorities and rival criminals.
All three titles are remastered for The Definitive Edition, including a rebuilt lighting system, upgraded vehicle and character models, new navigation and heads-up display designs, and improved shadows, reflections, and draw distances. The controls were updated to match those of Grand Theft Auto V (2013), and the checkpoint system was improved to allow for an automatic restart after failing a mission. On Nintendo Switch, the games include gyro aiming and touchscreen support. Some music tracks and cheats from the original versions of the games were removed, as was San Andreass cooperative multiplayer mode. The player can simultaneously run and shoot in all three games—a feature previously limited to San Andreas.
Development Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was developed by Grove Street Games and published by Rockstar Games. Under its former name War Drum Studios, Grove Street Games previously developed mobile versions of the trilogy, as well as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of San Andreas. The Definitive Edition was in development for two years, and used Unreal Engine 4 for rendering; the original games used RenderWare. The development team found porting the game to the engine made it look "clean", requiring them to make it appear dirtier to maintain the original look. Rockstar had resisted the trend of video game remakes as the team found they required care and attention, but they ultimately felt the remaster was "a way to maintain the titles for the next decade-plus" without dealing with the outdated technology. They found Grand Theft Auto III the most difficult of the trilogy to update due to the outdated assets; in comparison, San Andreas was much easier, as the original art department had learned to take advantage of the hardware at the time.
The team wanted The Definitive Edition to maintain the feeling of the original games; as part of this, they copied the original physics code. They originally attempted to rebuild some of the main buildings from scratch, such as the player characters' houses, but noticed a discrepancy in quality compared to other buildings. Some assets were improved from the original games, while others were ultimately rebuilt entirely. The team used an artificial intelligence program to upscale textures before making manual adjustments; producer Rich Rosado estimated over 100,000 textures were changed. The added navigation feature was implemented using pathfinding as well as analysing the routes taken by the non-player characters (NPCs), though it required some manual adjustments; the team found these implementations to be "easy wins" due to the existing technology. They wanted The Definitive Edition to run smoothly across all platforms while taking advantage of the higher-end hardware.
The team studied all three games to determine their distinct qualities, such as Vice Citys "bright neons" and San Andreass orange sky. They added dynamic colours that shift throughout the day, and corrected the placement and movement of the Sun, Moon, stars, and clouds. They changed some weather effects, such as the falling of rain and accumulation of puddles and their reflections. While the original games used "baked lighting"—"lighting [that] would just come from nowhere because we just need to light the scene"—The Definitive Edition uses the lighting from the sky, which forced the team to add artificial lights to avoid darkness in some locations, such as lampposts in alleys. All trees and foliage in the games, as well as some interior design elements, were replaced with higher-quality assets from Grand Theft Auto V; the team wanted them to naturally blend into the environment.
Rosado claimed "the art challenge alone felt insurmountable early on" due to the scale of remastering three games simultaneously, particularly the immensity of San Andreas. The team avoided making the games look too realistic as they felt the characters—whose motion capture data was coded to the original caricaturised wire-frame models—would look out of place. They wanted the characters to maintain their original appearance, noting the game "must look like you remember it". They faced difficulty when working on characters, as they felt adding detail "where there was no detail before" might conflict with the player's "mental image" of the character designs; the team consulted developers at Rockstar North, including some of the games' original artists. Much of the material from the original games—such as the source audio, textures, reference material, and character models—were unable to be found due to a lack of archives, as the original development team "never thought [they would] have to revisit these projects".
Release The existence of The Definitive Edition was first reported in August 2021 by Kotaku, claiming its development was led by Rockstar Dundee. Media speculation continued in September after the Game Rating and Administration Committee in South Korea gave the trilogy a game rating, and in early October after an update to the Rockstar Games Launcher included data referencing the game, such as logos, art, and achievements. Rockstar announced the trilogy on 8 October 2021, coinciding with the 20th anniversary month of Grand Theft Auto IIIs original release. It revealed the trilogy would feature "across-the-board upgrades ... while still maintaining the classic look and feel of the originals".
Existing versions of the three games were removed from sale from digital retailers on consoles and Windows on 13 October 2021. Audiences and journalists criticised the move, citing concerns with video game preservation, a lack of choice between versions, and the potential removal of music due to expired licences, which had occurred with previous re-releases. Eurogamers Wesley Yin-Poole called the decision a "blow to video game preservation" and poor for player choice. Upon the game's release, Rockstar confirmed the music matched the trilogy's most recent 2014 re-releases, with over 30 songs missing from Vice City and San Andreas collectively. Some cheats were removed as they "didn't play well" in Unreal Engine. On 19 November, Rockstar announced the original versions would be released as a bundle on the Rockstar Store; they were delivered for free to owners of The Definitive Edition on 3 December, and remained available with all purchases of the game until 30 June 2022. Customers who bought The Definitive Edition through the Rockstar Games Launcher were eligible to receive one free Rockstar game between 20 December 2021 and 5 January 2022.
Preorders for The Definitive Edition began on 22 October 2021, alongside the release of the first full trailer and screenshots demonstrating the graphical enhancements. The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 11 November 2021. Physical versions were initially scheduled to release on 7 December but were delayed to 17 December for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and to 11 February 2022 for Switch. The Windows version supports Nvidia DLSS, while the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions display at 4K resolution with up to 60 frames per second. The game was made available on Steam on 19 January 2023, allowing Steam Deck support, and on the Epic Games Store on 15 February.