So much can be said about the immense value that Xbox Game Pass provides players, and that bang-for-your-buck impact is evident when games like GTA 5 appear to download. Rockstar Games’ 2013 open world opus has a strange relationship with the Xbox subscription service, as it had appeared multiple times, before disappearing completely. Now, it seems that Grand Theft Auto 5 could be leaving Xbox Game Pass, again.
According to Redditor ‘C0d24’, the second best-selling game of all time could soon be departing from Xbox Game Pass. In a notification spotted by the Redditor, it reads “play before saying goodbye to Grand Theft Auto 5 or buy it with a 20% discount to continue having fun.” Currently, the game is on sale for the next 8 days at the time of publication, so it is possible that GTA 5 could be removed promptly after. If you’re looking for one of the best open world games on Xbox, then we’d be doing you a disservice if we didn’t point you toward the direction of GTA 5.
Sure, the game has been out for the better part of a decade now, but roaming around Los Santos in the current-gen upgrade still provides tons of fun. If you haven’t already purchased it, which seems impossible in this day and age, then you’d be best taking advantage of this offer, which reduces the game to $19.99/£17.49 for the Xbox Series X|S version of the game.
This version of the game includes all the enhancements Rockstar Games has made to bring the game up to current-gen standards, include a smooth 60 FPS frame rate, resolution boosts, and more. Although, we do wish that Red Dead Redemption 2 could the same kind of treatment, or at the very least, a 60 FPS patch. Sadly, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Following the release of the GTA 6 trailer, rumors of a GTA 4 remaster are back in the air.
A remaster of the 2008 GTA entry was rumored to be in development before, alongside initial rumblings of a Red Dead Redemption remaster. The latter eventually emerged as the recent PS4/PS5 port, which makes the game playable on PlayStation hardware beyond the PS3 for the first time. It’d be a shame if GTA 5 did leave again, considering it is easily one of the best Xbox Game Pass games on the service.
Will Rockstar Games replace it with something else? Perhaps L.A. Noire, Bully, or the Max Payne trilogy could come to Xbox Game Pass? With Remedy Entertainment working on remakes of the early Max Payne games, it’d be a great way to introduce newcomers to the series.