Rockstar Releasing GTA IV Remastered This Year Following Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake

Rockstar Games has pushed the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 until 2026, and this has made almost everyone very upset. However, there are rumors that a possible GTA 4 Remastered may be revealed soon, and the adaptation for current consoles is supposedly in the works, which might be available by the end of 2025. If a source close to Rockstar Games is to be believed, Max Payne 3 will be the next game to be converted to current systems, after Grand Theft Auto IV.

According to a Rockstar Games insider, Tez2 has been known to spill the beans on occasion throughout the years. This includes upcoming GTA Online update details as well as data mining re-releases from Rockstar's own services. During Sunday's GTA Forums session, he shared an interesting tidbit on the potential re-release of older Rockstar Games.

When a forum user asked Tez whether he had heard anything about a Grand Theft Auto IV remaster or port to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, he gave the fans what they wanted. He claimed to have heard rumors of a Grand Theft Auto 4 port from a person close to Rockstar. Given the considerable delay of GTA VI to 2026, this remaster has now advanced by one year. So, we might see it this year.

Rockstar/Take-Two mysteriously removed the immensely famous Liberty City Preservation Project mod from the game just a few months ago. Many speculated that its removal was due to a Grand Theft Auto IV port or remaster.

This happened to other major mods prior to the release of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy. Truthfully, Tez stated that the Grand Theft Auto IV remaster is "one more reason, in addition to current reasons, the LCPP mod was taken down".

Back in 2022, the studio was thinking about remastering Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption. Even if there have been some delays, the developers may have been planning to release the game after GTA VI. The incredibly negative reaction to the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy remaster led to the cancellation of the other games' remakes. 

Kotaku verified Tez's claims and said that the focus of the remaster money is currently on GTA 6, with the possibility that they may be reconsidered upon its release. Since we were able to have Red Dead Redemption via Double Eleven in the end, why not Grand Theft Auto IV, which is more deserving of a remake?

Aside from GTA IV, Rockstar had planned to release Max Payne 3 to showcase hardware after the COVID-19 pandemic. If they still want to, they might port Max Payne 3 to modern consoles around the same time as the Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake. According to Tez, there is a chance to offer a bundle or a Definitive Edition—Max Payne 3 adaptation, as well as a Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake.

A release in the first half of 2026 was the target for the Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake. With Grand Theft Auto VI's release date pushed back to later in 2026, it's possible that this product, which is published and marketed by Rockstar Games, may also be delayed.

This is a great method to enjoy Grand Theft Auto IV, which can be played on more recent Xbox systems thanks to backward compatibility. With its unlocked framerate, the Xbox One X can run the game at 60 frames per second. The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV is also not very nice to run on modern hardware, while PS4 and PS5 owners cannot access Liberty City. By the way, Nintendo will be releasing the Switch 2 in June.

Running the game at 60FPS on all platforms would be incredible, along with a smooth PC build. Even a simple port with some cosmetic updates would be great to keep fans entertained until Grand Theft Auto VI releases a year from now.

In the past two years, Double Eleven has re-released Red Dead Redemption for PC, Switch, and PS4, and those were terrific successes. The developers at that studio did an excellent job porting the game to those systems, adding some extra features like a 60FPS mode for the PS5 and better graphics options for the PC. I believe they would do a fantastic job porting Grand Theft Auto 4.