Report: Rockstar shelved GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption remasters to focus on the next GTA
Kotaku reported in July 2022 that Rockstar had set aside GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption remasters to put its resources into the next Grand Theft Auto.
Published on Leonidle , after the event.
Rockstar put planned remasters of Grand Theft Auto IV and the first Red Dead Redemption on hold so it could concentrate on the next Grand Theft Auto, Kotaku reported on July 5, 2022, citing its own sources. Rockstar has not confirmed the report.
For players, the message was to expect neither remaster any time soon. Kotaku's sources did not close the door completely: they said the projects were not entirely "out of scope" and could be picked up again once the new GTA has shipped.
The claim first came from Tez2, a Rockstar insider, who posted on July 4 that both remasters had been considered a few years earlier and then dropped. VGC described the insider as having leaked accurate details about Rockstar's games before. Tez2 suggested that the reaction to Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition may have played a part. That collection launched in November 2021 with serious technical problems, and Rockstar apologised and promised fixes.
Kotaku's sources pointed to the same two reasons: the Trilogy's poor reception and Rockstar putting its resources into the next game. Neither report said how far work on the remasters had gone, and Kotaku's story carried no response from Rockstar.
Two days later, Rockstar said on its Newswire that it had been shifting development resources to the next GTA, which Kotaku covered alongside the end of major Red Dead Online updates. That fits the report, but it does not confirm the remaster part.