But it is for a very good reason…
Back in November 2021, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition – consisting of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – and it did not go down well.
Due to a host of technical issues (which also made it unplayable to certain players for the first three days of release), and a generally disliked art direction, it ended up becoming one of the worst-reviewed games of the year – ranging from 46% on Metacritic for Nintendo Switch to 56% for Xbox Series X|S – and a bit of a black eye for the usually peerless reactions that a Rockstar release generates.
In the run-up to that game’s unveiling, there had been talk that Rockstar would also be looking to remaster more of their own back catalogue, but Kotaku has reported that is no longer the case for two of their biggest projects.
2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV and 2010’s Red Dead Redemption were both seemingly lined-up to be getting a shiny new next-gen friendly update, but Rockstar has shelved both of these remasters in light of the reaction to GTA: The Trilogy remasters.
But this isn’t the only reason why Rockstar is no longer focusing on the remasters, as Kotaku also reports that the game developers are now refocusing all of their efforts on Grand Theft Auto VI.
Back in February, Rockstar officially confirmed that GTA 6 was in active development, a full nine years on from the release of GTA 5:
“With every new project we embark on, our goal is always to significantly move beyond what we have previously delivered – and we are pleased to confirm that active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway,” said a spokesperson. “We look forward to sharing more as soon as we are ready, so please stay tuned to the Rockstar Newswire for official details.”
That was almost six months ago, and as per usual, Rockstar has remained pretty top secret about its new release.
However, it is also reported that once GTA6 ships and enough time has passed since the remastered trilogy release of, the company may return to the idea of remasters of GTA4 and the first RDR game. Watch this space…
In the meantime, why not test your knowledge of the GTA series to date with our Grand Theft Auto quiz.
