GTA Trilogy removes developer credit following major graphical update

Rockstar has removed Grove Street Games credits from the start of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition, following a major graphical upgrade.

The surprise patch was released on Tuesday, and made notable improvements to the much-criticised remasters.

However, one of the other changes is the apparent removal of Grove Street Games’ logo at the start of each game, and references to them in the game’s copyright blurb.

VGC loaded a pre-patched version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which opens with a splash screen showing game artwork the Grove Street Games logo and copyright information relating to Rockstar, Grove Street Games and Epic Games (for the use of Unreal Engine).

However, after downloading the patch we were instead met with a different screen, showing a black background and revised copyright information relating only to Rockstar and Epic Games.

Before the new patch was applied

After the new patch was applied

Grove Street Games was one of the main developers behind the Definitive Edition, but when it was released in November 2021, players quickly criticised how it looked, citing odd character models, a complete lack of fog, issues with rain effects and poor quality AI upscaling which added typos to numerous in-game shop signs and billboards.

When the Definitive Edition was ported to mobile devices in December 2023, it included a new Classic Lighting mode which players praised for looking much more authentic and in line with the original versions’ art style.

The mobile versions were instead handled by Video Games Deluxe, a team made of former members of LA Noire developer Team Bondi.

It appears that the new major update to the console versions is based on Video Games Deluxe’s work, leading to the removal of the Grove Street Games references.