The boss of GTA Trilogy developer Grove Street Games speaks out
The boss of GTA Trilogy developer Grove Street Games has expressed his disappointment on social media regarding the removal of “primary developers from credits” following the game’s recent update for PC and consoles.
Tuesday’s GTA Trilogy patch introduced fixes from the mobile version of the games (developed by Video Games Deluxe) such as a Classic Lighting mode that restores the appearance of the original games, along with enhancements to character models and visual adjustments.
The update also changed the GTA Trilogy’s opening splash screen to match the mobile version, with only Rockstar mentioned as the developer of GTA.
Thomas Williamson from Grove Street Games took to social media to share his thoughts on this change.
“Speaking entirely hypothetically,” Williamson stated on Twitter, “it’s a disappointing move to exclude primary developers from credits during an update, especially when the update includes numerous fixes contributed by those developers that were inaccessible to players for years.”
However, fans of the GTA Trilogy have noted that the game credits have not been altered, and Grove Street Games and its team are still credited as before.
Debunking Misleading Reports
Ensuring proper accreditation for game development staff has been a contentious issue, with Rockstar previously facing criticism for excluding staff members from credits. Despite this, Williamson’s remarks – albeit hypothetical – seem to be based on inaccurate media reports implying that Grove Street Games was completely uncredited.
Previously, Williamson garnered attention when the buggy and controversial GTA Trilogy was released, prompting backlash from players.
“I’m delighted to see players enjoying our work,” Williamson mentioned during the tumultuous launch period, while Rockstar issued apologies, offered a free game to PC users, and temporarily took GTA Trilogy offline for improvements. “I’m truly relishing the high level of scrutiny on our studio. Today, we celebrate the launch of our monumental project while continuing to work on updates. :-)”