When it first released in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 earned widespread critical acclaim, quickly becoming one of the top-rated and best-selling video games of all time. Rockstar Games then re-released Grand Theft Auto 5 about a year later for PS4 and Xbox One consoles, making some notable improvements to the game and sprucing up the graphics. But it's been nearly a decade since Grand Theft Auto 5 first launched, and so it's understandable that fans are growing anxious for GTA 6.
Despite this, Rockstar Games decided to re-release Grand Theft Auto 5 yet again, this time for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. This port was once billed as "Expanded and Enhanced," though that language was seemingly dropped from the marketing push the closer we got to launch. When the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Grand Theft Auto 5 did finally launch, it quickly became apparent that they were basically the same as before, but with better performance and load times. It seems this has not sat well with the community, as both the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game are being review bombed.
At the time of this writing, the PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto 5 has a 2.8 user score, while the Xbox Series X version has a 3.0 user score. Almost all the negative reviews are 0s and 1s, with complaints about how GTA 5 next-gen doesn't add enough new content and how it's overpriced.
Some developers and publishers have released next-gen upgrade patches for their games similar in scale to what Rockstar has done with Grand Theft Auto 5, but they've given them away for free. Rockstar is instead charging fans to get the next-gen versions of Grand Theft Auto 5, and that seems to be the main sticking point with the community. Based on the flood of negative reviews, it seems like many members of the community aren't convinced that the upgrades justify the asking price.
Rockstar's decision to charge for the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Grand Theft Auto 5 has proven to be quite controversial, though the company has done some things to make it cheaper for fans to upgrade. It offered GTA 5 at a discount at launch, plus it let PS5 owners claim Grand Theft Auto Online for free. The latter offer stands until June 14, so anyone interested should be sure to do so while they still can.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Metacritic
