GTA 4
We may not ever really get any actual information about the Grand Theft Auto series, but where real information lacks, rumors, leaks and lies abound. GTA 6 can rack up millions of views on Youtube despite not being announced, and I’d expect that to continue for at least a year, likely more. In the meantime, however, there’s a rumor going around about releasing GTA 4: Complete Edition on PS5 and, presumably, Xbox Series X, and that’s something I could actually buy happening.
The rumor seems to stem from a retail “leak” from Amazon that’s going around. We see these things all the time for all sorts of reasons, either real or photoshopped, and even the real ones can sometimes come from some weird autogenerating algorithm. So no, I don’t think that’s a real or reliable leak. It’s more of an opportunity to consider the fact that yes, this does seem like something that could happen.
Rockstar isn’t what we would call a prolific developer, and things are slower than they used to be. While the PS2 era was pretty rife with GTA 3s, there were 5 years in between GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Add to this the fact that the studio is also constantly producing new content for GTA Online, and it could be a good long while before we see GTA 6.
In the meantime, Take-Two is a a public company with an interest in making as much money as possible. Rushing Rockstar is clearly not an option—the golden goose must be handled with care—but in the meantime it could get some extra revenue by doing something like this.
GTA 4 is already available through backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X+S, though apparently there’s a bug that makes it impossible to beat. Giving the game a once-over in terms of frame-rate, resolution and the like seems like an easy way to re-release this thing for a new generation, particularly GTA Online players that may have been too young to play the thing when it first came out. That’s often the case with these “leaks”. Even if they’re fake, people choose plausible things to work with, and I’d call this a plausible thing.
GTA 4 isn’t my favorite in the series—it’s stuck between a desire to take things more seriously and that old, GTA-style anarchic satire. Still, people love it, and I hear The Ballad of Gay Tony is awesome. I have no doubt it would sell well on new consoles. I get the feeling that remasters and remakes are going to continue being an important part of the industry for a while, and this one seems like a natural fit.
