Following numerous rumors, a report has verified that Rockstar is working on remasters for three of the most revered Grand Theft Auto games in the series. Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City remasters are all said to be in development for multiple platforms, from current-generation consoles to mobile devices.
Kotaku reports to have spoken to three sources involved with the project, each of whom says that this has been in the works at Rockstar for some time. At one point it was planned for the remaster collection to be offered to players who purchased the upcoming remaster for Grand Theft Auto V on Xbox Series X and PS5, but say that plans have since shifted to a standalone collection release. These remasters were also reportedly meant to come out earlier this year, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed development.
The report states that the remasters will likely be bundled into a collection and sold digitally on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, and mobile. Some versions will be out this year while others, such as PC and mobile, might not be ready until 2022. The games are being remastered in the Unreal Engine, but care is apparently being taken to not stray from the overall look and feel of the PS2-era open-world games. The UI is being sharpened up for higher resolution displays, but the style will not be changing, according to the report.
Perhaps even more interestingly, the report states that Rockstar does have plans to pursue other remasters of its properties based on the sales of this collection. Kotaku writes that Rockstar is actively looking at a Red Dead Redemption remaster should it be satisfied with the performance of these three titles, although there’s no indication as to when that might be decided on.
The remasters are being handled by Rockstar Dundee, formerly known as Ruffian Games. The studio is familiar with open-world games, having developed Crackdown 2 and helped development on Crackdown 3. The report states that the newest Rockstar studio is also helping on development for Grand Theft Auto V for current-generation consoles.
Source: Gamespot
