LogInGrove Street Games was not on the update's splash screen.
Rockstar
Having your name erased from your work is a horrible feeling, even if the project was not your finest. Grove Street Games, the studio behind GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, knows it well since its name did not appear on the game's splash screen in its recent update, introducing the Classic Lighting mode and "numerous fixes and improvements." The company's CEO Thomas Williamson threw not-so-subtle shade at Rockstar in an X/Twitter post:
"Speaking entire hypothetically: It's a d*ck 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 said.
In the comments, players were quick to point out that Grove Street Games' name was still present in the credits, just not on the splash screen. Moreover, to no one's surprise, people once again blamed the studio for the unfortunate launch of The Trilogy.
The release, consisting of remastered versions of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, was released in 2021 and suffered from review bombing for its occasionally bizarre character models and many bugs. That's why now some people wonder why Williamson would want to be associated with this mess.
To be fair, work is work, and it's always important to be recognized, even if the final result was not what anyone expected. As Williamson said soon after the launch, "I'm honestly enjoying this unparalleled level of scrutiny on our studio." I guess bad publicity is still publicity.
On the other hand, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, said that there was only one "glitch in the beginning" and "that glitch was resolved" back in 2022, so perhaps Rockstar had a different perspective what the start.
What do you think about Williamson's approach and Rockstar's decision to strike the studio from the splash screen? Join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.