GTA Trilogy dev calls credits removal ‘a dick move’

The CEO of Grove Street Games, the primary developer of the much-criticized Grand Theft Auto Trilogy Definitive Edition ports, has blasted Rockstar for removing it from the games’ opening credits.

Earlier this week, a surprise update was released for GTA Trilogy, which made potentially hundreds of changes, including significantly overhauling the three-game package’s graphics.

However, one of the most notable changes was removal of Grove Street Games’ logo at the start of each game, and references to them in the games’ copyright blurb (however, their staff still remain in each game’s credits).

Now, Grove Street Games CEO Thomas Williamson has responded to the move, which seemingly came as a surprise to him. Writing on X, the owner criticized Rockstar for the opening credit removal, and claimed that his team was behind hundreds of fixes added in the recent update.

“Speaking entire 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 wrote.

Released in 2021, GTA Trilogy DE – which is made up of GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas – received significant criticism for its disappointing presentation and visuals. However, Tuesday’s surprise update seems to have made big improvements.

Patch notes simply note that a classic lighting mode – previously added to the mobile versions last year – has been added to consoles. By itself, this appears to have improved the Trilogy’s visuals significantly, but fans have noted there are more changes than Rockstar has mentioned.