Fans disappointed at the exclusion of certain songs inGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionmay have reason to rejoice. A mod has restored all of the removed songs fromGrand Theft Auto: Vice Cityand corrected an issue with it andGrand Theft Auto 3using menu sound effects fromGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Due to expired license agreements, several songs are no longer available in all three games included inGrand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition.The mod, provided by creator Junior_Djjr, serves to restore all of the missing songs toGrand Theft Auto: Vice Cityin addition to correcting the menu sound effects.
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As of this morning, the mod has been updated to restore all radio stations inGrand Theft Auto: Vice City.According to the creator, there areplans to restore all the radio stations and songsacross all three games. Of course, this mod is only available to PC players and as such, console players will be left with the updated track listings that shipped with the game.
Despite several songs being removeddue to licensing issues, Rockstar notes that all of the source music now plays at a higher audio quality of 16bit 44hrz in addition to being available in 5.1 Surround Sound. Each of the songs removed fromGrand Theft Auto: Vice Citywere originally removed in the 2012 Android and iOS versions of the game. This later affected PC versions of the game via a patch and subsequent versions on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 shipped without the songs. There are 8 songs that have been removed inGrand Theft Auto: Vice City.The list of missing songs fromGrand Theft Auto: San Andreasis much larger at 17 whereas no songs were removed fromGrand Theft Auto 3.
No one likes it when content is removed from a game, especially when it is considered core to the experience like theradio stations and music are inGrand Theft Auto.But the world of licensed music is a complicated and merciless one. There could be several reasons a license expires. It could be that Rockstar chose not to pursue renewal, the music license holder denied the renewal, or the parties couldn’t agree on the dollar amount required for renewal. These are deals that happen behind closed doors and players are seldom privy to them. And despite Rockstar’s best efforts to curb the modding community and shut down original versions of the games,modders will find a way to restore assets. While it can be understandable for licensing issues to stand in the way of music not making it back into a game, it’s puzzling why the developer didn’t bother to add the correct sound effects for the menus. Either way, this mod serves to correct just a few of the issues plaguing this “definitive” edition.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Editionis available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
