GTA Vice City remaster is seemingly ditching the Confederate Flag

The GTA: Vice City remaster appears to have removed a Confederate Flag from a character's top.

As first reported by Kotaku yesterday on October 25, the GTA Trilogy trailer has switched out a Confederate Flag for a new image. Specifically, the t-shirt that weapons dealer Phil Cassidy wears in Vice City no longer sports the Confederate Flag, but now depicts a simple skull logo in its place.

This is just one scene featuring Cassidy, a recurring character in the original GTA Trilogy. As Kotaku rightly points out, this doesn't necessarily mean that Rockstar has outright removed all Confederate Flags from the forthcoming remaster of GTA Vice City, but it's a potential indicator that the flag could be absent from the remaster when it launches next month.

We emailed Rockstar to confirm the news, but did not hear back before we went to press. 

It's easy to see why Rockstar might have removed the Confederate Flag, a symbol synonymous with slavery and the Civil War that was fought over it, from the remaster of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. As Kotaku notes, this actually follows in the wake of the Apple App Store removed games that featured the Confederate Flag in 2015, and Twitch followed suit last year in 2020 by banning the symbol from the streaming site entirely. 

As for the GTA Trilogy, it's not too long until we'll be able to get our hands on it for ourselves. The digital editions of the remastered trilogy launch on November 11 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch, while the physical editions will launch nearly a month later on December 6.

For a look back into Rockstar's past, head over to our GTA 3 interview with Rockstar North head Aaron Garbut for more.