CEO behind GTA Trilogy calls out Rockstar's "d*ck move" for removing his studio's name, claiming that "hundreds of fixes" had "stayed out of players' hands for years"

GTA
(Image credit: Rockstar)

The CEO of Grove Street Games – the studio behind the 2021 GTA Trilogy collection that was heavily criticized by fans at launch – is clearly very unhappy with the developer's recent removal from the collection's splash screen, having now blasted it as "a dick move."

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which includes GTA 3, San Andreas, and Vice City, was full of bugs when it first released and generally wasn't considered to live up to the 'definitive edition' part of its name. However, this week it got a surprise update that made some massive changes in the form of bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and visual upgrades, including a "Classic Lighting Mode." All in all, there's never been a better time to try the collection, but players also noticed that, mysteriously, Grove Street Games' name has been scrubbed from the collection's splash screen, which studio CEO Thomas Williamson has now called out.

"Speaking [entirely] hypothetically: It's a dick move to remove primary developers from credits in an update, especially when an update includes hundreds of fixes that were provided by those developers that stayed out of players' hands for years," he writes on Twitter. 

He might not mention GTA by name, but given this week's news, it's obvious what he's referring to. As has been pointed out in the tweet's replies, Grove Street Games is still listed in the end credits for the Trilogy collection, so the studio's efforts haven't been left totally unacknowledged. However, it's fair to say that it's a strange move to erase the developer from a place it was previously credited on, especially when Williamson alleges that the team was also behind "hundreds of fixes" in the latest version. His comment also raises the question of why the fixes weren't rolled out sooner when so many things needed fixing, and have done since 2021, but he's not elaborated on this. 

Williamson's comment also follows GTA fans noting that Grove Street Games appears to have unfollowed Rockstar Games on Twitter, which suggested that the team behind the Definitive Edition might not be best pleased with the original GTA studio. Now, it certainly seems likely that that's the case for Grove Street's CEO.

"Games have bugs and GTA is no exception": Former Rockstar tech lead shouts out modder behind hundreds of fixes for the original GTA trilogy on PC.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of GamesRadar+'s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

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