Rockstar Games has put its older Grand Theft Auto games on sale on Steam, and the timing is not subtle. Steam's store pages label the discounts a "Special Promotion" that ends on November 19, which is the day Grand Theft Auto VI launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. PC is the one platform that does not get the new game that day.

We checked the Steam listings ourselves on November 7. The prices and the end date below come straight from the store pages in the US and UK regions. PC Gamer and GamesRadar+ first picked up the sale on November 6.

What Is on Sale and for How Much

Two products carry the discount, covering four games between them.

  • Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which bundles Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas, is down 67 percent, from $59.99 to $19.79 in the US and from £59.99 to £19.79 in the UK.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, which includes The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, is down 70 percent, from $19.99 to $5.99 in the US and from £16.99 to £5.09 in the UK.

Both pages show the same countdown line, "Offer ends November 19". Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced was not discounted when we looked, so the promotion is limited to the pre-GTA V catalogue.

PC Gamer notes, citing the price tracker IsThereAnyDeal, that $19.79 is the lowest the Trilogy has ever been on Steam and that the GTA IV price is close to its historic low. Rockstar's own games rarely drop into the deep-discount territory that other publishers use, so a 67 to 70 percent cut is about as generous as this catalogue gets.

Steam Only, as Far as Anyone Can Tell

Both outlets looked for the same deal on consoles and did not find it. PC Gamer reports no sign of the discounts on the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Store. GamesRadar+ spotted a separate Nintendo eShop deal on the Trilogy at the same $19.79 price, but that one was ending within hours of its November 6 article, so it does not line up with the GTA VI date.

That makes this a PC-flavoured promotion, which fits the platform situation. Rockstar has only ever announced Grand Theft Auto VI for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. There is no PC release date, and Take-Two has not said when one might come. The site's PC release page tracks every official statement on that question, and the short version is still "not yet". A sale on the games PC players can already own is the nearest thing to a launch-week gesture that Steam users are getting.

Which One to Buy

If you only want one of them, GamesRadar+ makes a fair case for GTA IV. It costs less than a third of the Trilogy price, and its PC version does not carry the baggage of the Definitive Edition launch in 2021, when all three remasters were criticised for bugs and visual problems.

The Trilogy has been patched a great deal since then, and GamesRadar+ points out that Vice City and San Andreas now hold positive recent Steam ratings. Grand Theft Auto III is the outlier. GamesRadar+ reports its Steam reviews sit in the mid-sixties for the percentage of positive ratings, with players still citing bugs, broken cutscenes and performance dips. That matches the "Mixed" label on the game's Steam page. If you are buying the Trilogy for Vice City nostalgia before heading back to Leonida's version of the city on consoles, that is still a reasonable $19.79. If you are buying it for GTA III, go in with your eyes open.

What to Watch Next

The sale runs to November 19 and nothing suggests it will be extended. GTA VI pre-loading on consoles starts on November 10 per Rockstar's Newswire, and code-in-box copies reach retailers from November 12. For PC players, the thing to watch is still any word from Rockstar or Take-Two on a PC version. Take-Two reports its quarterly earnings on Monday, November 9, and analysts usually ask about PC on that call. We will cover anything on the record.