GTA Trilogy players accuse Rockstar of “stealing” after refund scandal

Sam Smith
Ryder weird image

Rockstar’s heat level continues to surge since the release of the GTA Trilogy remasters with fans now accusing the company of theft.

Many Grand Theft Auto fans have enjoyed returning to Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas in the Definitive Edition of the GTA Trilogy. Seeing three games from the PS2 era decked out with new graphics on 4K systems is quite the difference, but there are a lot of GTA fans who are dissatisfied with the final product.

The GTA Trilogy launched with a lot of bugs, some ranging from the hilarious to the unacceptable when it came to the game’s visuals. While the remasters were never going to match most modern games when it came to graphical fidelity, subsequent issues have caused the fanbase to lose patience with Rockstar.

GTA Remasters key art
GTA’s remaster trilogy has fans wishing they could’ve bought the originals instead.

GTA Trilogy fans frustrated following lack of refunds

Before release, fans and pundits were surprised that Rockstar didn’t show any footage of the games in action. Instead, they released a series of images that received a very mixed reception. Many fans were worried the final product may be broken, and in many cases, their fears were justified.

They’re now making their voices heard with some even proposing legal action against Rockstar for the catalog of issues they believe are tantamount to stealing. An expletive-ridden Reddit post calls for action against Rockstar, with the original poster listing the problems with the GTA trilogy.

They said, “They removed the old trilogy, make people buy the new. The new is non-playable, crashes, drop of frame rates, and much more as is known. Asked for a refund since I bought it for PS5, and Sony is refusing because the game was downloaded and played for less than 2 hours. Told me that the publisher does not acknowledge the new trilogy as non-playable and so no refund. I feel scammed.”

The poster went on to explain why they felt Rockstar had misled them and that large companies have a duty to make sure their products work on release and if not, to recompensate consumers. They said, “They are multi-million-dollar companies and steal from players that trusted on their services with hard-earned money and refuse to get back what they took?”

Vagos bad animation
It’s hard to earn respect on the mean streets of Los Santos when you look like this.

Rockstar accused of “stealing”

“Don’t get me wrong! I understand that if people buy a game and play, it shouldn’t be refunded because the person isn’t enjoying the game,” the commenter said.

“But, in this case, the trilogy is broken, we have to exit the game several times because cutscenes freeze the game, cars spawn everywhere and explode, kill the character even on a mission, and much more. They should be accountable legally. This is stealing.”

Others echoed the original poster’s thoughts, saying “I wish I bought the Steam versions [of the originals] before they removed them, I didn’t think the remasters would be this broken.”

Some were grateful that they bought the original versions of the GTA trilogy before it was pulled from the online store saying, “I’m lucky I got them on the PS4 months ago.”

While it seems unlikely that Rockstar will be accused of stealing by any legal authority, the problems with the GTA Trilogy, and their response to complaints, are unlikely to win them any goodwill with fans when it comes to future projects.

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About The Author

Sam is a Senior Games Writer for Dexerto specializing in Survival Horror, Diablo, Final Fantasy, and Soulslikes. An NCTJ accredited journalist, Sam also holds a degree in journalism from the University of Central Lancashire and has many years of experience as a professional writer. Being able to marry his love of writing with his addiction to video games was always one of his life goals. He also loves all things PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo in equal measure. Contact at sam.smith@dexerto.com