About three years ago, Meta caused some profound head tilts when it revealed that it was going to try to do a VR remake of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Unfortunately, the project is not coming anytime soon, as Meta has officially confirmed that it has been put “on hold indefinitely.”
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to IGN via email that the game has been put “on hold indefinitely.” Additionally, the official Meta Quest VR YouTube account responded after users commented on a trailer for an upcoming Meta Quest game, Behemoth, developed by Skydance Games. “GTA: San Andreas is on hold indefinitely while we both focus on other projects,” Meta Quest VR’s official YouTube account confirmed in the comments. “We look forward to working with our friends at Rockstar in the future.”
GTA San Andreas VR was announced during Facebook Connect in October 2021. No gameplay footage or a release window was shown during the event. In a blog post highlighting games presented at the event, Meta described GTA San Andreas VR as “a project many years in the making.”
GTA San Andreas VR would not be the first time that Meta has provided a VR remake to a game, as the company previously worked with Armature Studio and Capcom to bring the original Resident Evil 4 to Meta Quest headsets. Additionally, GTA San Andreas VR would have been the second VR project Rockstar Games has worked on following L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files, which was initially released in 2017 for the HTC Vive, before making its way onto Oculurs Rift headsets and PSVR in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was originally released in 2004 for the PS2. Set in the early 1990s in the fictional southern California city of San Andreas, players control Carl “CJ” Johnson, who returns to his old neighborhood to investigate the murder of his mother.
GTA San Andreas’ indefinite delay comes as Meta is losing billions of dollars in the VR gaming market. In a new report published by Yahoo Finance earlier this month, the outlet said that the Reality Labs division was burning through money, with $16 billion in losses accrued from the VR-centric division in 2023 alone.
IGN has reached out to Take-Two Interactive for comment.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
