There are few franchises in the world as popular as Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar’s sandbox crime series iso one of the most profitable pieces of media ever. However, it’s been eight years since a new GTA game, with much of Rockstar’s time on the series being spent on supporting Grand Theft Auto Online and creating Red Dead Redemption 2.
On Friday, Rockstar finally gave fans what they’ve wanted to see … sort of. While it wasn’t a new game, Rockstar officially announced a remastered trilogy of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is one of those games that has had rumors swirling around it for quite some time, so it didn’t come out of left field, but it was still exciting to have it officially confirmed.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) October 8, 2021
The announcement of this trilogy coincides with a big anniversary for the GTA series: the 20th anniversary of GTA III. For a lot of longtime fans, and really for Rockstar itself, GTA III was the game that changed the entire series. It created the formula that GTA and, really, every open-world game ever has emulated or straight up copied. Anyone who’s played a game where they had a map full of icons that they could take on at their own leisure has, in some way, used the GTA III formula.
While GTA III was extremely popular on its own, it also spawned the spin-off San Andreas and Vice City games. San Andreas took the idea of giving the player endless options in an open world to new highs, while Vice City‘s overall style was beloved by fans everywhere. GTA IV and GTA V sold more, but there are still many fans whose love the original PS2 trilogy. Rockstar is giving them the ability to play those games again in a new way.