As it stands, if you want to play Red Dead Redemption, you have to use a PlayStation 3, since the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 aren't backward compatible with PS3 games. It's possible to use an Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S to play the Xbox 360 version, which is backward compatible. This isn't ideal, and it's a case where a remastered version of the game for current systems could work quite well, but it won't be released due to the poor performance of the GTA Definitive Collection. At least GTA IV is on PC, but it too could benefit from a remaster to optimize it.
The GTA Definitive Collection bundled Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas into a single package. These are three excellent and beloved games that, with a proper remaster, would have revitalized the series. However, their poor final result is the reason why there won't be a remaster of Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto IV until the release of GTA VI.
Bad decisions lead to cancel GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption Remaster
First of all, it's important to clarify that GTA Definitive Collection didn't sell very well, around ten million copies in its first few days . These are very positive figures, by any measure, but as the saying goes, it's all in the details, and the reality is that it was one of Rockstar Games' worst releases in terms of media coverage. The task of remastering the PS2 games for current consoles and PC was handled by Grove Street Games, a company dedicated to making mobile versions of Rockstar classics, since, being a more modest project than GTA VI , it wasn't feasible to dedicate a large part of the main team to it.
The Grove Street Games team ported all the game's assets to Unreal Engine 4 and used artificial intelligence to enhance the polygons and textures. This resulted in the removal of much of the original visual style and the loss of many humorous visuals due to a lack of proofing. There have also been numerous bugs, such as a rain effect that made it impossible to see anything on screen because the raindrops were set to maximum opacity.
Overall, Grand Theft Auto: Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was a poor-quality product resulting from having to entrust development to a small studio without realistic development timelines or resources. Since remastered versions would most likely require the same team because Rockstar is focused on GTA VI, they have canceled the remasters of Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV . Their development hasn't been ruled out for the future, but resuming them won't be considered until at least the release of GTA VI.
