GTA trilogy remaster rumors could mean GTA 6 is sleeping with the fishes

Crank up the GTA rumor mill. There’s new speculation about a remastered Grand Theft Auto collection floating around, and even if it doesn't relate to Grand Theft Auto 6 directly, it could have some impact on the much-anticipated sequel anyway.

Through a bit of clever deduction, some GTA fans think that a remaster collection might be in the works for several classic GTA games. If true, it would be the GTA equivalent of Super Mario 3D All-Stars that brings three of the game’s best entries together in one package. So what could that mean for GTA 6?

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Those who want to follow the rumor to its source will have to take some pretty big logical leaps to get there. The speculation began on the official GTA forums in a long-running post about DLC. Buried deep within the 500-page discussion, a user named Mach1bud, known as a somewhat credible leaker in the community, simply wrote the word “Soon.” They later elaborated and implied that an announcement was coming that they’d been hoping would happen for a long time.

Through some sleuthing, and a lot of arguing, many members of the community took this as a clue that remasters of some sort were on the way. Some particularly clever fans even dug up a tweet from one of the forum’s admins, who posted some fan-made credit cards with some interesting details: The numbers 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2013 appear on them, which cover the years that GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 5 came out.

It’s the kind of stretch that would make a yoga instructor wince.

The idea itself isn’t that outlandish, however. Remasters and re-releases are fairly common these days, and Rockstar would have a lot to gain from touching up any of the older Grand Theft Auto games. Some fans think the originals could get an overhaul, while others think PS2 games like Vice City would be an obvious pick. It’s a wild guess in either case, but it’s hard to argue against how much fan enthusiasm there would be for any of these remasters.

So, for the sake of playing along with the community, let’s say that the teases really are pointing towards some remasters. What would that mean for the big game everyone is waiting for: GTA 6?

Hypothetically, nothing good. Rockstar already has a lot on its plate right now when it comes to the franchise. Next-gen versions of Grand Theft Auto V are due soon, which already implies that the company is committed to updating that game. That means fewer developmental resources being dedicated to the sequel. Now throw in a separate remaster project, and it would send a pretty clear message that GTA 6 is not an immediate priority for Rockstar.

We already know that’s true up to a point, even if the rumors turn out to be totally empty. GTA Online continues to grow despite being nearly a decade old. The studio is also tied up with Red Dead Online too, which is now its own separate game entirely. With that major change to the game’s business model, we can expect it to get some serious support in the coming years.

Remasters or not, this is yet another moment for fans to accept the hard truth that GTA 6 isn’t coming anytime soon. Recall that despite various rumors and reports, Rockstar has yet to even confirm that the game is officially in development. Between a full itinerary of updates and an ongoing pandemic, it’ll be a surprise if the game even shows up in 2022. So to that end, maybe a remaster collection is exactly what fans need right now to scratch that itch. We’ll need something to hold us over, right?

GTA 6 is reportedly in development.