Non-RPG General News - GTA Trilogy Pulled from Sale

ScreenRant reports that Rockstar Games has decided to pull GTA: The Trilogy after a number of PC issues.

GTA Trilogy PC Pulled From Sale By Rockstar Games

Following a messy PC launch via the Rockstar Games Launcher, GTA Trilogy has been removed from sale on PC with no word on when it'll return.

Several issues plagued the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, which launched exclusively on the Rockstar Games Launcher; as such, this iteration of the remastered collection is no longer available to purchase. Rockstar and publisher Take-Two Interactive released the trilogy yesterday, November 11, across consoles and PC, offering players a new way to experience the seminal sandbox games.

The collection packs in remastered versions of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, each of which originally hit store shelves during the PS2 era. These three games later resurfaced as digital-only versions for more modern platforms on storefronts such as PSN; however, within days of the GTA Trilogy announcement, Rockstar and Take-Two removed these classic builds from sale. Now, the newly released trilogy counts as the only way in which to purchase the generations-old adventures.

[…]

More information.

This is why when people criticise Blizzard or similar talented studios for their remasters, they just prove they have no clue what they are talking about. Making a proper working remaster takes a lot of good work nonetheless, else you end up like Rockstar, trying for the cash grab and having to back off red-faced from shame.

The price of forcing gamers to use your third party DRM online launcher service. Seems companies never learn and something like this always affects the legit buyers instead.

Needless to say, this issue perfectly exemplifies why PC users expressed frustration the GTA Trilogy's Rockstar Games Launcher exclusivity. A GTA Trilogy-related SteamDB leak suggests the collection may eventually migrate to other platforms, yet Rockstar Games has yet to corroborate as much. Hopefully, the issue with the studio's launcher reaches a resolution sometime soon.

Lesson here is just play more console versions of games instead.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
The price of forcing gamers to use your third party DRM online launcher service. Seems companies never learn and something like this always affects the legit buyers instead.Lesson here is just play more console versions of games instead.

Yes, it's silly. Central point of failure.

Recently, others had similar issues with Denuvo I believe.

It's time the publishers reviewed how much is really saved by including a DRM … and adopted a better solution.

You would think that perhaps platform systems like great old games and Steam would have some kind of built in non-cheats without needing extra such devices on the games themselves? Or is that unrealistic?

Originally Posted by Carnifex
You would think that perhaps platform systems like great old games and Steam would have some kind of built in non-cheats without needing extra such devices on the games themselves? Or is that unrealistic?

Steam does have a DRM protection system but it was cracked easily.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Yes, it's silly. Central point of failure.

Recently, others had similar issues with Denuvo I believe.

It's time the publishers reviewed how much is really saved by including a DRM … and adopted a better solution.

The price for Denuvo is high, but publishers factor in it's cheaper to pay them to use it then lose the first few months sales. Some publishers do remove it after a few months.

All because they have to pay for the license again after six months or a year.

These launchers are also an effort to own the relationship with the consumer and not give up the 30% to the distribution channel. But since the user experience is actually WORSE, it causes more friction than it it worth.

Might have even bought it if their bad steam clone hadn't been down then. Looks like I dodged a bullet there, since the quality of the remaster seems also to be severly lacking.

Surprising. Isn't Rockstar usually known for solid releases?

It's not something I would have purchased myself anyways. Not at that price at least.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
The price for Denuvo is high, but publishers factor in it's cheaper to pay them to use it then lose the first few months sales. Some publishers do remove it after a few months.

All because they have to pay for the license again after six months or a year.

I've never seen a convincing argument that they'd lose as much to piracy without it. Publishers seem to blindly take that as an insurance because that's what everyone does.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I've never seen a convincing argument that they'd lose as much to piracy without it. Publishers seem to blindly take that as an insurance because that's what everyone does.

I think the fact that Denuvo is actually pretty effective is the argument. Not saying I agree with it, but I imagine that's the publisher's view.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Steam does have a DRM protection system but it was cracked easily.

I still do believe that Steam IS the DRM system …




And, besides, where's a game called "Virtue City" ? Crime seems to be an overly attracting theme, that's why there is only "Vice City" in existence, but never "Virtue City" …

The last time Virtue was explored as a concept was in the Ultima games, which were never understood by the cash-loving people at EA …

It's as if someone was trying to transform the rather spiritual ideal of Virtue into cash, and failed, and thus never took it on again. And if anyone at EA would try it a second time, you can be sure that the term "Virtue" would end up as an registered Trade Mark.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
And, besides, where's a game called "Virtue City" ? Crime seems to be an overly attracting theme, that's why there is only "Vice City" in existence, but never "Virtue City"…

Haha, nobody can accuse you of being inconsistent.

Press X to say "have a nice day". Press B to climb tree and rescue cat.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I still do believe that Steam IS the DRM system …




And, besides, where's a game called "Virtue City" ? Crime seems to be an overly attracting theme, that's why there is only "Vice City" in existence, but never "Virtue City" …

The last time Virtue was explored as a concept was in the Ultima games, which were never understood by the cash-loving people at EA …

It's as if someone was trying to transform the rather spiritual ideal of Virtue into cash, and failed, and thus never took it on again. And if anyone at EA would try it a second time, you can be sure that the term "Virtue" would end up as an registered Trade Mark.

The idea your getting at here has been done already in comics. Gotham City versus Metropolis. Gotham being the seedy underbelly and Metropolis the idealistic vision.

Id love to see these games released DRM free and for Rockstar to leave the fan-made projects alone, even if they are reversed engineered.

I love GTA V, but these remasters look like a money grab, and this incident makes it sound like they were done half-assed and rushed to the pc market. This makes me very unlikely to buy them in the future, unless on a deep discount sale like 80-90% off or something.

Originally Posted by Silver
The idea your getting at here has been done already in comics. Gotham City versus Metropolis. Gotham being the seedy underbelly and Metropolis the idealistic vision.

Piltover vs Zaun! (Hint, watch Arcane, it's good!)

The ironic thing is: It was not pulled because it was shit, but because of the files still available in the release (probably music tracks). Rockstar is really going down the shit hill, it seems.

Originally Posted by Irian
The ironic thing is: It was not pulled because it was shit, but because of the files still available in the release (probably music tracks). Rockstar is really going down the shit hill, it seems.

From what I read here and elsewhere, the problems were due to the launcher on the server side, and bad performances of the game.

I think the music files were datamined along with dev notes, it's not an issue. It's a well-known problem in copyright licencing, the way Rockstar did it is legal.

Anyway, the game was never that great to start with. I had fun for a while with GTA 5, but the short-memory problem of the game, the very short story and the silliness of the NPCs quickly annoyed me.

EDIT: it's apparently a "disappointment" on Switch too (I'm not going to grant this game another newsbit for reviews).

@Redglyph:

RockstarSupport wrote on twitter:

The Rockstar Games Launcher is now online, but GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is unavailable to play or purchase as we remove files unintentionally included in these versions.

Seems they have different priorities than their customers.