Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: The Definitive Edition is happening

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Appearing in South Korea's rating system is the latest proof of Rockstar's remaster.

Grand Theft Auto
(Image credit: Rockstar)

It's long been rumoured that Rockstar was beavering away on remastering the PS2-era Grand Theft Auto games: Grand Theft Auto 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas. The existence of these remasters has now been confirmed thanks to the South Korean games rating board, which has classified Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy—The Definitive Edition. Per a machine translation, the collection is rated "youth not allowed".

The remasters had reportedly been planned for an earlier release but have suffered various internal delays, and their existence was all-but-confirmed thanks to Take-Two's statement to investors that it's working on three unannounced "iterations of previously released titles." The publisher's recent aggression towards mods using assets from these games is also notable.

A Kotaku report on the remasters credited the remasters to Rockstar Dundee, the studio previously known as Ruffian Games, which was itself a spinoff from Realtime Worlds, which itself was a spinoff from DMA Design (which is now Rockstar North, and in Edinburgh). Those Scots eh.

The games are supposedly being remastered using Unreal Engine and a mix of new and old graphical styles, as well as featuring an updated UI and other tweaks that bring the games more in-line with the more recent iterations of Grand Theft Auto. Take it with a pinch of salt, of course, but the trilogy will apparently hit PC in 2022.

Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."