Will the GTA Trilogy chaos finally kill the Rockstar-Grove Street Games partnership?

[ZaxxerDog]

I think that what we've seen in the last couple of days was quite insane. Basically we're at the point where Rockstar managed to release a bunch of remasters that not only have weird art design choices and are terrible on a technical level but have stuff in them they shouldn't have. The cut music was just there in the game's files, it looks like mostly nothing is encrypted on the Switch port so people can just hava a go and dig into it and honestly I don't think that the PC version was removed and Rockstar was in maintenance for something like 30 hours just because they couldn't remove a few music files.

 

No, chances are that this release is in a state where it's legally unsellable and it will take quite a while before the PC version could return to the digital store. That's a huge problem on Rockstar's side too since if they can't provide the service that people paid money for then that's a breach of the EULA and really in general it's just a breach of contract in Civil Law. Not only that but when Rockstar took down the launcher they took down every PC online service they had (GTA Online, RDO etc.) which means that there might be a million people affected by this. The point is that somebody cause some serious damage here and if that has anything to do with Grove Street Games then I don't see the company survive much longer. Based on tweets like this they really didn't know where the situation could escalate to:

This is the usual "oh we know there are some issues but don't worry, we'll fix them"  response devs can give to a bit of negativity when they know they released something with a bit of dust on it. This is not a bit of dust though, this is a disaster that will need some serious added development time to get into a good state. Compared to this the WarCraft 3 Reforged developers just went into hiding right before and right after the launch and most likely braced themselves for the coming storm. They knew that the game was not up to snuff while based on this tweet GSG seems completely oblivious to that fact and think that this is just a few hardcore fans scrutinizing every little detail. It's not, oh boy it's not.

 

And really the reception is some hardcore hate that I haven't seen since WarCraft 3 Reforged or Cyberpunk 2077. GSG messed up the mobile port of SA and 2 of the 6th generation console ports of SA too but those were never really high profile releases, there was no real backlash, only in the relatively obscure fan community. The Trilogy DE release on the other hand is a very high profile release, it will smear the name of this studio really hard to the point where renaming the company again might not be enough this time.

 

Honestly I really don't see how GSG could survive this, maybe if Rockstar starts offering instant full refunds on PC and then GSG proceeds to release some banger patches that fix the games in a few months but yeah, the chances of that are very slim. The WarCraft 3 Reforged team didn't survive that product even with them not being directly responsible for the game's lack of quality.

Any thoughts? Would GSG going under be good for future remasters? I think so.

[NightmanCometh96]

The pessimist in me me says no. It has been common knowledge in the GTA community for years that their mobile port of SA was garbage, and yet R* still put GSG in charge of making the Trilogy DE (to the point of basing the games on their respective mobile versions).

 

Going by R*’s decision there, GSG will be just fine. Really hoping they don’t touch IV+EFLC or the Stories games, but knowing how much R* seems to dislike those games (especially the former), it’s a depressingly realistic possibility. 

Edited November 13, 2021 by NightmanCometh96

[rbix]

They are probably starting GTA IV remaster next week

[Mindshower]

8 minutes ago, rbix said:

They are probably starting GTA IV remaster next week

 

[StarJet905]

I hope not. GSG is clearly no great developer, but the Rockstar producers completely neglected their jobs on this and I finally agree that the blame should be on Rockstar first and foremost.

[Americana]

I mean, they did call themselves Grove Street Games. What else can we expect?

Edited November 13, 2021 by Americana

[Maelubiyet]

It's really not on Grove Street Games. It is very obvious this project was just as rushed as the mobile port. The whole timeline of announcement, trailers and release and the glitches in the game screams that R* put them on the job a lot later than they should've. I bet they didn't even work on this for a whole year.

[Tez2]

In terms of the future, Take-Two is heavily investing into mobile gaming space. They have since combined the mobile developers acquired by them into a mobile game division called "T2 Mobile Games".

 

Grove Street Games is a studio known as a mobile game developer going by the track record. I don't think Take-Two would blink twice to miss an opportunity of having a developer handle the aspect of introducing titles made by Rockstar Games to mobile. Especially, since RAGE nowadays runs on mobile apps too.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Tez2

[ROCKSTAR MANIC]

Honestly I’m somewhat disappointed after we were fooled that these games would be based off their PS2 counterparts. Basically mobile ports ported to URE. We were lied to. This port is not worth 60 dollars. I’m not bashing GSG devs, I’m sure they had limited time to make this come alive. But make sure your QA was competent enough to make playable to a degree. A lot of corners were cut. Awful

[Crateman]

If GSG was not involved in this and the trilogy was developed at Home, we probably be enjoying the Game right know instead this Sh*tstorm that is happening right now.

[NightmanCometh96]

On 11/13/2021 at 2:47 PM, Crateman said:

If GSG was not involved in this and the trilogy was developed at Home, we probably be enjoying the Game right know instead this Sh*tstorm that is happening right now.

In a perfect world, if not R* itself, I really wish Bluepoint had handled the DE. That’s the kind of company I’d trust with handling remasters/remakes on the scale of GTA, not a primarily mobile developer porting said mobile versions to consoles on two separate occasions.

 

Even being closer in scope to their Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (extremely faithful remasters of the PS2 originals, just at a higher resolution and frame rate, ideally fixing the high FPS glitches) rather than the Demon’s Souls or Shadow of the Colossus remakes would have been enough for me compared to the inconsistent, glitchy, horrendously optimized mess (on all platforms) that we ended up getting from GSG.

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by NightmanCometh96

[Lock n' Stock]

Regardless of who to blame, this is a colossal f*ck-up that could affect Rockstar for years to come and there's no doubt in my mind that they and the CEO of War Drum/GSG are exchanging words.

[Magic_Al]

Rockstar Games is ultimately responsible because they set the constraints of time, money, and assignments that the studio must adhere to. This isn't about technical or design competence it's about having enough budget and time. Those decisions come from RSG NYC.

[GhettoJesus]

While it is true that mostly it is Rockstar's fault it is not going to bother T2 and the investors one bit. The only thing that matters is the sales. And boy people are eating this game up. So overall I think everyone goes home as a winner expect the parts of the fan. So is it over for GSG? I don't think so.

[Cutter De Blanc]

2 hours ago, Crateman said:

If GSG was not involved in this and the trilogy was developed at Home, we probably be enjoying the Game right know instead this Sh*tstorm that is happening right now.

To be fair if was developed by Rockstar they would've probably delayed it

[UncleRico69]

I can't believe the PC version had hot coffee files in it. That's amazing. It is the icing on the cake that is this entire sh*tshow. Rockstar officially sucks. My gut instinct told me that when all the original people left the company. Now I know it truly because they released such a steaming pile of sh*t. 

[Badman_]

It would be fun if they change their name again.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Wolfman_
English.

[Americana]

Yeah, they'll change their names every time they remaster a game.

[TimMiller]

No it won't. Rockstar could release a literal pile of dog sh*t and sell it as GTA 6 and people will still buy it.

 

[Moth]

2 hours ago, TimMiller said:

 Rockstar could release a literal pile of dog sh*t and sell it as GTA 6 and people will still buy it.

 

I agree, sadly

 

GSG might get sh*tcanned if Take2 get sued by the music industry for their f*ck up. 

[Nawaf]

6 hours ago, Tez2 said:

In terms of the future, Take-Two is heavily investing into mobile gaming space. They have since combined the mobile developers acquired by them into a mobile game division called "T2 Mobile Games".

 

Grove Street Games is a studio known as a mobile game developer going by the track record. I don't think Take-Two would blink twice to miss an opportunity of having a developer handle the aspect of introducing titles made by Rockstar Games to mobile. Especially, since RAGE nowadays runs on mobile apps too.

I just hope when the 10th anniversary of GTAV come soon. I hope rockstar port it by them selfs not GSG

[ZaxxerDog]

15 hours ago, Americana said:

Yeah, they'll change their names every time they remaster a game.

Maybe. I'm hoping for Last Shot Interactive as the next one.

[Rytuklis]

I don't think that GSG is gonna have any consequences for this. And I don't think they should.

 

Yes, they released a sh*t product. But in the end it is a Rockstar title. I find it very hard to believe that it went through without some quality assurance from Rockstar and their green light.

 

Somebody from Rockstar must've seen that the draw distance in the SA Definitive makes the map look akward and weird without the fog, and said "yeah - this is okay". Someone in Rockstar saw the cartoony, awful character models that somehow look worse than the original and said: this is fine, go ahead and release it.

 

Rockstar should take most of the blame here. They let this happen. They OK'ed it.

Edited November 14, 2021 by Rytuklis