A South Korean ratings board listing has been spotted for a Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster, seemingly confirming that the trilogy is indeed on its way to modern gaming platforms in a remastered form. We don't know what's been added or changed yet, though.
What does the Korean Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster reveal?
You can see the rating by the Korean GRAC (Game Rating and Administration Committee) right here. The listing is, of course, entirely in Korean, except for one prominent element: the title of the game. The Grand Theft Auto trilogy will apparently be remastered under the name Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition. This would appear to confirm months of rumors suggesting a remastered version of the PS2-era trilogy is on its way to modern platforms, although the rating itself doesn't confirm which platforms these might be.
This news was originally spotted by prominent Twitter gaming analyst Nibel, who tweeted the rating out earlier today. In a followup tweet responding to another Twitter user's question, Nibel suggested that Take-Two would announce the Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster "soon". Nibel went on to say the console versions could launch later this year, while the PC and mobile versions of the trilogy will arrive in 2022.
What's the backdrop to these Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster rumors?
Take-Two has been taking down Grand Theft Auto mods with DMCA notices recently. Back in August, the company issued notices against mods intended to bring the worlds of Bully and classic GTA games into GTA IV and V. Earlier this month, the impressively large-scale GTA: Underground mod was killed by Take-Two as part of these mod purges. These takedowns seem directly related to comments Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick made in an earners' call, in which he said mods that threatened the "economy" would be removed. In this case, the "economy" refers to Take-Two's ability to make money from Grand Theft Auto games, so mods "remastering" old GTA games would be taken down if Take-Two was planning to introduce official remastered versions of those games.
At this point, the Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster is looking like the world's worst-kept secret. In August this year, PCGamer reported that Take-Two is working on "three more remasters or re-releases", and at that point, rumors of the remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy's existence had already been swirling for quite some time. We should expect an official announcement for this remaster from Take-Two soon.
It remains to be seen whether Take-Two intends to change anything about the content in the remasters. Grand Theft Auto is known for its controversies; recently, a group of LGBTQIA+ developers called for Rockstar to remove transphobic content from the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V Expanded & Enhanced. We don't know if Take-Two intends to do this for GTA V or for the trilogy remaster, but expect a conversation to emerge about some of the elements of the trilogy that haven't aged so well. In the meantime, you can grab the non-remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy on PC and PS4 (the latter of which is playable on PS5 through backwards compatibility).
Are you excited for the Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster? Let us know in the comments below!
