As allGrand Theft Autofans know, there are few things more important to aGTAgame than its soundtrack. Cars will crash, missions will complete, but the radio is something that will persist through each player’s entireGrand Theft Autoexperience. That’s why fans have anxiously awaited news regardingGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition’s soundtrack and whether Rockstar has been able to relicense each game’s music. Officially, there’s now good news and bad news on that front.
The good news is that Rockstar has officially confirmed that each game’s soundtrack is returning from their most recent re-releases in full. So if anyone’s playedGrand Theft Auto 3,Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, orGrand Theft Auto: San Andreason iOS, Android, or on PC via theRockstar Game Launcher, the soundtracks will be identical. In other words, theGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionre-release won’t be removing any further tracks.
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The bad news is thatGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionunsurprisingly won’t be bringing back any of the previously removed tracks from each game. For example,Grand Theft Auto: Vice Cityhad two Michael Jackson songs removed: “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin' Something.“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, too, has been hit over the years. Both “Express Yourself” and Tom Petty’s “Runnin' Down a Dream” were removed from the game. EvenGrand Theft Auto 3had “O Mio Babbino Caro” removed from releases beyond the original PlayStation 2 version of the game. And those are just a handful of the songs removed from port to port over the past two decades.
LIPS 106
EMOTION 98.3
WAVE 103
FEVER 105
CSR 103.9
MASTER SOUNDS 98.3
SF-UR
The track cuts over the years have been disappointingly harsh, but that’s just the nature of music licenses in the video game industry. Few in 2001 could have predictedGrand Theft Auto 3would be released across a dozen new platforms over two decades, each requiring ironclad licensing agreements for each individual featured song. Even with Rockstar’s experience on the matter,Grand Theft Auto 5has had music removed, too– “Can’t Hold Back (Your Lovin')” by Kano.
Grand Theft Autofans with a keen ear have noted one potential ray of light.LeakedGrand Theft Auto: Vice Cityremaster footagefrom the upcoming trilogy re-release has included some music that isn’t included on the list. As such, some fans hope that the list is evolving. It’s more likely, however, that this is the final list and any leaked music is just that – unofficial.
While it’s easy to focus on the absent music inGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, it remains true that there’s a lot of great music still in each game. That’s 56 songs inGrand Theft Auto 3, 84 tracks inGrand Theft Auto: Vice City, and a whopping 138 tracks forGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas. While losing some of this iconic music is a big loss, especiallyVice City’s Billie Jean opener, players may otherwise never notice a difference.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionreleases November 11 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
