Grove Street Games boss says a lot of people actually enjoyed the GTA Trilogy remasters

Terrible GTA Trilogy remasters were actually enjoyed by "a lot of people," says studio boss who "agreed with most of the people's reactions"

Remember the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition? The one that launched with rain so broken it looked like someone smeared Vaseline on the screen, character models that belonged in a PS2 fever dream, and a whole bunch of missing music? Yeah, that one.

Well, the studio boss behind it, Thomas Williamson from Grove Street Games, has been chatting with GamesRadar and he reckons the remasters weren't the total disaster everyone makes them out to be. He says a lot of people actually enjoyed them, and he "agreed with most of the people's reactions" at launch. Which is a pretty wild thing to say when you remember the internet basically turned the trilogy into a meme within hours.

"I think a lot of people enjoyed it," Williamson said. "I definitely agreed with most of the people's reactions. I think there were things that could have been done better, and I think that's always the case with any game."

He's not wrong that some folks had fun. If you squinted hard enough and ignored the jank, the core games were still there. But "a lot of people enjoyed it" feels like a stretch when the PC version was pulled from sale for days and Rockstar had to issue a public apology. Williamson also pointed out that the remasters were done by a small team with a tight schedule, and that better remakes would need Rockstar's full involvement. No argument there.

It's easy to dunk on Grove Street Games, but the whole thing was a mess from the start. Rockstar outsourced a rushed project and then acted surprised when it blew up. The studio boss is just doing damage control at this point, trying to salvage some pride. Still, it's funny to hear him say he "agreed with most of the people's reactions" when those reactions were overwhelmingly negative. Maybe he was reading a different subreddit.

Makes you think about how protective Rockstar is being with GTA 6. No half-baked remasters, no weird mobile ports. They're not letting anyone touch that game until it's perfect. After the trilogy fiasco, I'm fine with that.

Source: GamesRadar+ · Curated content.