GTA: The Trilogy on Nintendo Switch now has a new physical release without download requirement [update: maybe not]

August 12: More than three years after it originally came to Nintendo Switch, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition now seems to have a full physical release on the system.

It’s true that there was a boxed version previously. However, with the original physical release, a download was required. Vice City essentially wasn’t on the cartridge – you could land on the startup screen, but after that, you’d get a notice telling you to download the game. There were also downloadable updates for Grand Theft Auto 3 and San Andreas.

Interestingly, while there hasn’t been any word from Rockstar, a new version of the GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition physical release recently landed on Nintendo Switch. We have the updated boxart above. It’s basically the same as the previous version, but without the download required label. We’re hoping that some of the more recent patches are also included on the cartridge.

Amazon has a release date of July 28, 2025 for the new listing. That does indeed tell us that this is a new version of the game – the original listing still exists, but there’s no reason to buy it at this point.

Also, the new version – which you can grab here – is actually less expensive. Whereas you can pick up a copy of the updated boxed release for $30, the original version is $60 (though we currently see it on sale for $42).

Thanks to Jake for the tip.

August 13: We have an update that may point to this not being a physical release after all.

Over in Europe, it looks like GTA: The Trilogy is getting a new version there as well. However, their packaging shows that it’s a code-in-box. That would actually make this worse than the original launch as you wouldn’t be getting a cartridge at all.

The thing is, there is no code-in-box label for the North American packaging. That leaves us with two options. It’s still possible that North America is getting a new physical release with everything on the cartridge, but we also can’t rule out that someone messed up by not including the code-in-box warning. Every other code-in-box stateside release includes a very noticeable label at the top, We’ll let you know if we receive any further updates.

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