Though previously expected sometime this year, Rockstar Games has appeared to push back the release of its mobile version of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy- Definitive Edition to 2023. According to parent company Take-Two Interactive’s Fourth Quarter Fiscal report, the collection’s release for iOS and Android will appear somewhere in Fiscal 2023.
When The Definitive Edition was first discovered in August 2021 by Kotaku, it was apparent that the console and PC versions would be prioritized, with its mobile port pushed back a year later. It will now be 2 years apart, on top of the lack of pre-release content for the mobile version. This news comes as a bit of an irony considering the remastered trilogy looked more like mobile ports of the originals to begin with. On the bright side, the delay of the mobile port could be an opportunity to expend extra time to develop it in a much better state than what happened with its console and PC versions.
Even before the launch of The Definitive Edition, Rockstar faced criticism for wiping the existing versions of the 3 games by October 2021 to make room for its November release. That move raised concern for video game preservation, prompting Rockstar to apologize for the release state, ultimately restoring the original games to stores. In terms of gameplay reception, The Definitive Edition received harsh criticism and long list of refund requests. Though The Definitive Edition came with enhanced visuals and an updated game experience, the collection’s launch was riddled with graphical issues, bugs and progression crashes. Gameplay reviews by aggregators such as IGN and Metacritic showed generally unfavorable feedback.
The Definitive Edition’s remastering of 3 iconic PS2 GTA games was released for present-day consoles back in 2021, consisting of GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas. This same collection in its mobile form was expected at least a year after the console/PC release, as the current mobile GTA games are massively popular with the mobile gaming community. Numerous GTA titles in the past have received ports to mobile devices, with Chinatown Wars released for iOS in 2010 for Android and Fire OS in 2014, followed by GTA III and Vice City re-released to fit iOS and Android in 2011 and 2012. The Definitive Edition on mobile would bring an updated experience to those who might not have played many GTA titles before.
Take-Two is a video game holding company that owns Rockstar Games, 2K, and recently acquired Private Division, collectively publishing major titles such as the 2K sports games, Red Dead Redemption and Olli Olli World. Other upcoming releases from Take-Two include The Quarry, a cinematic teen horror game slated for a June 10 release and Marvel’s Midnight Suns which is set to come out in the second half of 2022.