GTA Vice City leaving PS Plus Extra catalogue after only four months

Grand Theft Auto Vice City: The Definitive Edition is leaving PS Plus Extra after only having joined Sony's subscription scheme in October 2022. The game's short stint on PS Plus Extra sets a bad precedent.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City The Definitive Edition was recently revealed to be one of the many games leaving PlayStation Plus on February 21st, 2023. It's not especially good news for PS Plus fans, as GTA Vice City's leaving PS Plus Extra suggests new additions to Sony's subscription scheme might have a surprisingly short shelf life.

GTA Vice City ditching PS Plus already.

Grand Theft Auto Vice City The Definitive Edition leaves PS Plus in February

GTA Vice City joined the subscription scheme as one of the new PS Plus Extra and Premium games of October 2022 and was marketed prominently as one of the highlight additions of that month. Yet only a few short months later, players can expect to say goodbye to Rockstar Games' iconic PS2 title — or, at least they can say goodbye to its somewhat dodgier Definitive Edition remaster.

It sets a remarkably bad precedent for PS Plus Extra and PS Plus as a whole. Generally speaking, most games that join Microsoft's subscription scheme, Game Pass, are locked onto the service for a year — it kind of has to be that way when you sell people annual subscriptions. Yet it's perfectly possible that GTA Vice City gave convinced someone to sign on for a year of PS Plus Extra back in October, and now four months into their subscription they'll have lost access to the game that bought them in.

The confusion.

As per usual, it's the kind of thing that Sony could have solved with a little transparency — let us know that GTA Vice City is an exception and not the rule, that its inclusion was just seeing out an older PS Now contract with Rockstar Games. Although, to the end: Vice City joined PS Now in February 2022, left after three months, and has since returned to see out another four months. Having Vice City appear on two Sony subscription services for seven disconnected months makes even less sense, if anything.

Or, even better, just tell us up front how long a game will be available on PS Plus. Another game that joined PS Plus Extra alongside Vice City was Dragon Quest XI —a 60-hour-long game even at a minimum. Being able to judge how long players have left until a title leaves PS Plus would certainly save a lot of heartaches for fans of the best PlayStation JRPGs.

That PS Plus logo sure gets around.

Regardless, it doesn't instil a lot of confidence in how Sony plan to run this subscription scheme, and it would be far better for customers to know at least something about how this all works. Until then, let us know what your thoughts are regarding GTA Vice City leaving PS Plus by joining us down in the comments below.

More Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition stories:

PlayStation Plus

Written by Lee Brady

Staff Writer Lee keeps one eye on the future (Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth), one eye on the past (PS Plus Premium, recent Sony news), and his secret third eye on the junk he really likes (Sonic Superstars, Final Fantasy XVI). Then he uses his big mouth to blurt out long-winded opinions about video games.