5 reasons why GTA Vice City needs a remaster in 2021

The way the industry has evolved, long-running franchises like GTA now have an unbelievably profitable well to keep going back to - remasters and remakes. This essentially refers to the catalog of excellent games in the series' past that have been successful and remain popular today.

Games like GTA Vice City and San Andreas have a built-in fanbase that the series can always rely on for continued success. This puts Rockstar Games in a great spot as they have a reliable avenue for guaranteed success and a way to keep the fanbase satisfied.

Being one of the most beloved titles in the series, GTA Vice City has been mentioned frequently when speaking of games that could do with a touch-up. Seeing how both Liberty City and San Andreas have been revisited in later games in the series, Vice City remains the only one to have not gotten the HD treatment.

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Why GTA Vice City Remastered would be a smart decision for Rockstar Games

1 - A stop-gap entry

2021, for Rockstar Games fans, is a year of great importance to GTA. The second half of the year will see the release of GTA 5: Expanded and Enhanced Edition. Seeing how Strauss Zelnick (Take-Two Interactive CEO) said that Rockstar doesn't like just port games, it means the remaster will have taken a massive effort.

This will essentially mean that GTA 6 is still far off in the distance, and what better than a Vice City remaster to fill the gap in the middle. While far from a complete sequel, a remaster for one of the most beloved titles in the series would go a long way in terms of pleasing the fans.

2 - Palpable demand and guaranteed success

GTA Vice City remaster is pretty much a home run if there ever was one in the games industry. Most fans would enjoy playing the game on their new consoles with updated tech and visuals, even though the game has aged relatively well.

Vice City remains one of the most visually impressive open-worlds designed by Rockstar, and a proper remaster would help solidify that claim even further. Plus, the retro wave mania that has taken over mainstream media would only help push GTA Vice City to great success.

3 - Creative opportunities

A remaster isn't a complete remake, the difference might not seem like much at first, but it is pretty significant. A remake implies that the game has been worked on from scratch. For instance, Mafia: The Definitive Edition was a complete remake of the original and thus contained new cutscenes, new story beats, and felt like a completely new game.

While a remaster is more of an updated version of the original, that doesn't mean that there isn't space to experiment creatively. As chances are, Rockstar might want to go back and add or remove things to tighten up the whole experience.

Thus, providing an excellent opportunity for Rockstar to go back and polish their mid-2000s masterpiece.

4 - Potential base for future GTA sequel

An open-world map as revolutionary as Vice City represents a studio at the height of its powers. If it so happens that the next major GTA sequel takes place in Vice City, Rockstar might want to go back to the drawing board and figure out exactly what works about the Miami-inspired playground.

Thus, setting up a solid base for a future GTA sequel and an excellent opportunity for Rockstar to assess what worked about titles in the past.

5 - Test the waters for the future

Vice City is about the safest bet of the lot (the lot meaning the PS2 trilogy) since it falls right between San Andreas and III. GTA Vice City is the perfect candidate for a remaster, and it will allow Rockstar to test the waters regarding future GTA remasters and whether they are worth the risk.

Since Rockstar has an unbelievably high standard for their products, it will be interesting to see whether they consider remasters worth their production cost.