Nintendo has revealed that the physical edition of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition for Switch will hit retail stores on 11th February.
The news was shared today with fans on social media, with tweets confirming the release date and giving us a good look at the official box art. The 11th February date has been confirmed for both the North American and European markets.
In an interview earlier this week, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick explained that the game has "done just great" despite suffering from a pretty disastrous launch.
In our full review, published before its much-needed updates which arrived in November and December, we had given the game a score of 4/10, describing the Switch port as "a shockingly rough package that manages to suck pretty much all of the fun out of Rockstar's stellar crime epics."
Comments (63)
Do
not
buy
this!
😀
It will still be a buggy mess!
How about fixing the games first? Framerate on the Switch is still atrocious even after 4 patches
Will be in the bargain bins for £5 within months
Is it any better since the post-launch patches?
If this was just the original games ported over without being buggy, it would've been a day 1 purchase for me, but as it currently stands I will not be giving Rockstar a penny
I was so looking forward to this, thank god they bought the download first to show how p*ss poor this is
Why would anyone buy a physical game that has already shown to be nothing but biggy and have issues all over. Not worth the purchase at all and especially for the price their going for.
After all the dang glitches and the arrogant attitude from Rockstar... Absolutely not, lmao.
Also, Kirby launches the next month after. Is far more worth your money!
Are all the games on the cartridge? No? Ok, it's a hard pass then
(Since this game is launching physically on Switch close to Valentine's Day)
I'd rather have my heart destroyed by my crush before buying this buggy mess that doesn't even have the three games on the cartridge.
@Mauzuri Also this, Kirby has my attention more than I had expected. I mean, I'm doing everything I can to have money to get it at launch.
Not worth it in my opinion. These games are still a buggy mess from what I heard
Save your money for Kirby and the Forgotten Land
They never patched them on PS2, Not even sure that was possible then but look how they flew off shelves and were given glowing reviews by basically everyone. Funny how nobody complained about the crappy condition they were in upon their original release.
@Truegamer79
You sound like someone who hasn't tried both versions. The PS2 versions had small, negligible glitches. These "remasters" have a lot more glitches that are far more annoying.
I'll wait until this goes on sale. I do not intend to support shoddy port jobs so I'll get it as cheap as possible.
Off-topic but the Life is Strange Remastered Collection got delayed for Switch to "later this year".
I can only imagine what's going through Nintendo's mind right now. They snapped up physical publishing rights to a trilogy of three of the most beloved sandbox games ever made, they must've thought it would print money. Now? Well, I've never seen a 'we'll see' more in my entire life.
I want to buy this, but I won't.
Physical media is dying, the moment where you still need to download something to fully enjoy what you bought, it's just fancy digital media, we don't know if Nintendo's servers are going to be shut down, making the physical copy a paperweight.
Even when a physical copy doesn't require a download, it may still require patches and DLC to fully enjoy the game, you will still own the bad or incomplete version of a game.
YES!!! Finally, can't wait for this. Was sooo close to buying the digital version over Christmas but was holding out for the physical. These play and look so much better than the originals, regardless of what some people think.
@Grumblevolcano yup it did. Notify NintendoLife I case if you want
I wouldn't even want a patch to fix it at this stage. I'd rather not waste memory space on this. Digital or Physical this will eat up a lot of data.
I have the game digitally, it's not much improved since launch. The major problems with the Switch are the low resolution, frame rate, and how they have disabled visual features present in the other versions. For example, ambient occlusion is disabled so the cars look like they are floating at night, as there is nothing to replace the block shadows present in the originals.
It's certainly playable, but should be better than it currently is.
All the fix patch better be in the cartridge.
Only if all the games come in the cartridge and they are all parched up by the time this is released, I will consider buying it.
Otherwise, I will save the money for Triangle Strategy and Kirby.
@TheWingedAvenger
I played the originals yes but I also remember them being buggy as hell too. Of course that was before the internet had really taken off and I guess nobody cared cause they couldn't do anything about it like they can now.
they really have that courage to release the physical while it is still a buggy mess
@Truegamer79
Original games at least have a legitimate reason to have glitches, which is why people don't complain much when looking back. Back in the day, fixing glitches was really expensive because you would have to manufacture new copies of the game. Nowadays, it's as cheap and easy with maybe a 5 minute download and install.
GTA Trilogy is three old games, recoded from the ground up, not ported. The expectation to have no glitches is very high because you would expect them to avoid making the same mistakes over again. There's also the expectation that the games take the full advantage of modern hardware because there's not as much to reprogram as there would be if they were creating an entirely new game.
Unfortunately, the developers missed BOTH of these goals and brought us something that's more or less a cash grab. When a port onto mobile does better than a "remake" on powerful game consoles, then it's a huge problem, especially considering how much easier it is to avoid problems like this nowadays than it was back then.
What was the purpose in the delay if nothing meaningful was gonna be done? Please tell me they've done something right with this physical launch.
I literally had the option of getting this half off during the recent eshop sale and even then I refused to budge; that's how sad it is. ):
Do the games run better now? It's such a missed opportunity to mess this up, having these games on the go would've been incredible...
@Codered44 well apparently rockstar decided to fix the games themselves reason why switch version physical copy was delayed.
Still broken and probably requires you to download 99% of the game to an sd card.
@RiasGremory Yeah but I worry that it's just a minor patch and that the games will still run poorly. I hope NintendoLife does another review, maybe it'll score a 5/10 or 6/10 this time around lol
Super unpopular opinion: I've put a lot of hours into GTA San Andreas on Switch and while it performs as smoothly as a derailed train, I still keep playing it and enjoying it for what it offers. I like it for the same reason I liked it back on the PS2, the incredible amount of side activities and interesting mechanics.
I wouldn't recommend anyone else to buy it on Switch because I'm sure others don't feel the same as me, but I just wanted to say if you aren't too bothered by choppy framerates or glitches, you could do a lot worse than GTA San Andreas.
Not buying this. The game on cart is going to be the royal mess that came with the digital release. I collect games so that I can play them again.
I wouldn't bother playing even if someone gave me this crap for free
No one in their right mind will buy this! It’s still glitchy and runs horribly not to mention the physical requires a massive download to even play all the games. (Not to mention the patches.)
@Dirty0814 I'll admit if it proves that the physical version is basically patched to be a competent version running at a steady 30fps and little to no bugs/spelling errors/weird character models...I'll bite...at half price
@Laserbeak1982 if you haven’t bought it yet, how can you say they play better than the originals??
@Grumblevolcano by the time Life is Strange makes it to Switch it’ll probably be $20 on the other consoles. And it’s not even the full game on the cart.
@Bizzyb You missed out on Cesar Drumstick Fingers, they patched out the wonky character models a little bit ago.
He haunted my dreams for a time, but his 2 foot long fingertips made me laugh each time I saw them. They will be missed.
@Bizzyb from what I’m seeing is Vice will be a download and I am betting all the patches are not on the cartridge either. Just not having all the games on the cartridge is a no go let alone the patches. I will look into the play asia version. Usually the Asian versions have English and include all patches and downloads. It may or may not include vice on the cartridge. I’ll update once I find out.
Now, I'll admit my hype for this was nowhere near as high as some (I'm not really a fan of the games) but I was looking forward to having a dabble. But since release, I can appreciate why folk are upset and disgusted and to be blunt, my hype is even lower now. Especially as there is a download required. I would have thought they would go all out to make this as good a purchase as possible for the consumer...if not the fan. Feel free to buy 2K, Microsoft. It's another company I can live without.
I might get this when it's under £10
i would get this game but have to waiting a sale and more patch updated fix
@Dirty0814 Thanks, appreciate it! ✌
@nib0 yeah. something had to be done since it has been delayed.
I wanted to get this on switch, but then after all the bugs, I realized I could just play the iPad ports for $5-7 each. I’m enjoying San Andreas on iPad just fine
There was no point whatsoever in delaying the “physical” release as you’re still getting the rubbish incomplete builds on the cartridge, and users will have to use their own microSD card storage for the lofty patches for all three games (and the entirety of Vice City).
I’ll only consider this if I can grab it for next to nothing, but even then, any amount is more than Rockstar could possibly deserve for this contemptible abomination.
“Definitive edition”? Nothing more than a cynical marketing term, because Rockstar should be embarrassed with themselves. I suspect that the only reason why the “physical” release was delayed as so that Rockstar wouldn’t effectively be forced to slash prices sooner.
This game is becoming a rolling disaster in the making.
@ModdedInkling I don't believe it was re-coded from the ground up. I believe this is a port, of an Xbox/PS3 port of, a mobile port. They simply added some new features, upscaled the graphics (very poorly in a lot of areas), and somehow still managed to create worse glitches than the originals' had.
I honestly wish it wasn't just a cash grab, but an actual ode to the original game, and its sequels that changed generations of gaming and sparked brand new ideas of what a game could be. What's done is done, I won't even touch this in the bargin bins.
@Zach1122 I've played the digital version.
Funny how I was so pumped to buy this, the thought of having the classic GTA games on a portable was something that I was very excited about. Then they managed to have these old PS2 games perform so terribly that I lost all interest. That says a lot when I am all for something but I just can't buy it.
@PeteW and I will still wait til it drops to £3.
@nib0 No. Fraid not bruv. Some of the patches introduced more issues, like an even worse framerate.
@Nin10doh
It's a hybrid between a port and a remake. It uses Unreal Engine 4 as opposed to RenderWare, and only some of the assets were reused and upscaled; The other assets were make completely from the ground up because the original development discs for each game were lost/not archived.
It seems to NOT be a port of a port of a port, considering a bit of very controversial code was left in this, meaning they took the actual original code from PC and PS2, instead of the modified one from the PS3/Xbox 360.
@TheCrabMan Dad if the year right here.
Won’t buy the Switch version as is unless heavy discount
@nib0 Slightly better in one or two areas but still terrible framerates and a buggy, unplayable mess.
Save your money for Pokémon Legends Arceus, Kirby and The Forgotten Land or Rune Factory 5, thank you and you're welcome.
@HammerGalladeBro
You can do it! It's not a race, though!
Subpar release of overly entitled developers...
I'm avoiding this garbage for plethora of reasons.
It's already available here in Hong Kong, saw it at HK$360 (about £36). Would've been tempted if it weren't for all the bugs and glitches 😓
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