Update (November 15, 2021, 08:29 Eastern Time) - The GTA Trilogy is now once again available for purchase following last week's issues with the Rockstar Games Launcher.
"Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is again available through the Rockstar Games Launcher for play and purchase," read a tweet from Rockstar Support. "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and are working to improve and update overall performance as we move forward[.]"
Update (November 13, 2021, 2:22 PM Eastern Time) - The Rockstar Games Launcher is now back online, but GTA Trilogy fans shouldn't get excited: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition remains unplayable.
"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," read a tweet from Rockstar Support. "We're sorry for the disruption and hope to have correct ones up soon."
We'll continue to monitor the situation.
Update (November 12, 2021, 10:50 AM Eastern Time) - The situation surrounding Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition continues to evolve. First the Rockstar Games Launcher is still down, with the most recent message this morning saying:
We thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to work on restoring services for the Rockstar Games Launcher and supported titles.
Beyond that, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is no longer available to purchase on PC, even on the Rockstar website. If this is due to the launcher issue, or the flurry of data found in the files is unknown.
Our original story continues below.
Some players are having problems playing Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, but it's not because of the game -- rather, it's because the Rockstar Games Launcher is down.
Rockstar Games made the surprising announcement that it was launched a remaster of the 3D-era GTA games about a month ago. That wasn't the only surprise, either -- San Andreas is coming to the Meta Quest 2 (and it might not be the only VR game from Take-Two in the future). Unfortunately, some gamers encountered the bad kind of surprise today when the Rockstar Games Launcher went down, rendering them unable to play the GTA Trilogy.
"Services for the Rockstar Games Launcher and supported titles are temporarily offline for maintenance," read a tweet from Rockstar Support. "Services will return as soon as maintenance is completed."
Several players responding to that tweet (as well as discussions on Reddit and ResetEra) note a general inability to play the game -- or indeed, many other Rockstar Games titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2. The Rockstar Games Launcher has been down for the better part of an hour and no updates to its status have been provided at the time of writing.
Rockstar Games Launcher Workaround Might Be a Fix for Frustrated GTA Trilogy Owners
While the inability to play the GTA Trilogy is a major downer, a user on Reddit may have discovered a possible fix for the Rockstar Games Launcher outage.
"As you may have noticed, the rockstar games launcher pc services are offline 'for maintenance,'" read a submission from /u/Don-Al-Two on Reddit. "In my case, I couldn't run GTA:SA anymore, even in offline mode. The launcher said that I have to 'complete the update to run the game' or something like this."
"Solution: execute the \Gameface\Binaries\Win64\SanAndreas.exe while Rockstar Launcher is open, then the update message [disappears] and you can run the game. Probably works with GTA III and VC too."
We haven't tested out this fix; attempt it at your own risk. That aside, one hopes that Rockstar will get its game services back online soon. We'll continue to monitor the situation as it develops. On the upside, it looks like you'll be able to get the games on Steam sometime soon as reported by TechSpot. If you don't want to wait, you can pre-order Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition for PC and consoles at the price of $59.99 or your regional equivalent via its official website.
What do you think of the issues with the Rockstar Games Launcher? Does today's outage put you off of purchasing exclusives on that platform? Let us know in the comments below!
