Revolution Team — the modders who reimagined Vice City — quietly dropped a teaser that should make anyone who grew up on CJ sit up. They’re building Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — not as a map rip or texture pack, but as a full, playable experience inside Grand Theft Auto V’s RAGE engine.
What they announced (and what the teaser actually shows)
The short announcement is straightforward: the group behind Vice City Nextgen Edition has shifted focus to a much larger project, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Nextgen Edition. The aim, according to the team, is to port the entire 2004 game — missions, cutscenes, characters, vehicles, the lot — into GTA V’s modern engine.
What they released publicly so far is a short teaser and a tightly worded description. Unlike the earlier Vice City rollout, Revolution Team say they’ll be more careful about what they show and when. That caution makes sense: Vice City Nextgen was playable and popular, but promotional footage and downloads attracted legal action and takedowns that disrupted distribution. The lesson appears to be: move quietly, ship carefully.
Multiple outlets reporting the news note one interesting detail the team hinted at elsewhere — an internal build is reportedly playable end-to-end. If true, that suggests the project is past proof-of-concept and into the long, painstaking work of polish and retooling for a different engine.
Why this matters (and why it could still stall)
San Andreas is enormous. Bigger than Vice City in map size, mission count, and sheer ambition. Rebuilding it inside RAGE isn’t just a graphics pass: it’s a technical port of systems, story logic, NPC behaviours, and mission scripting. For players who felt Rockstar’s Definitive Edition didn’t go far enough, this mod promises the opposite — a modernized version that keeps the original’s scope intact.
But there are three very real clouds above this sunny announcement:
- Legal risk. Take-Two and Rockstar have previously used takedowns against fan projects. Revolution Team learned this the hard way with Vice City, and they’ve said they’ll be cautious. That could mean private distribution, delayed public builds, or shelving if legal pressure mounts.
- Scale and time. San Andreas is massive. The team’s own notes and outside reporting warn that development will likely outlast smaller projects and could take a long time to reach a stable public release.
- Platform and compatibility. Because the project lives inside GTA V’s engine, players usually need GTA V (and a capable machine or console) to run the mod. For people thinking of upgrading hardware, a high-end console like the PlayStation 5 Pro is an obvious candidate for smoother performance.
A curious side-effect of the mod scene is that fans are increasingly filling gaps while the industry sorts itself out. Rockstar’s studio turbulence and layoffs have made headlines, and the company’s internal issues have crept into conversations about project timelines and priorities. For context on the broader studio climate, see reporting about recent staff changes at Rockstar.
Meanwhile, players who don’t want to wait for a fan port (or a hypothetical Rockstar remake) still have options: GTA Online continues to be updated and offers fresh content — like seasonal events and cosmetic drops — that keep communities engaged between major releases; if you’re just looking for something to jump into now, the game’s live offerings remain robust (including the recent push around the Panther Statue event).
How to read the teaser — excitement with a grain of salt
Watch the reaction on social platforms and YouTube: fans are thrilled, and clips of the teaser are spreading fast. But enthusiasm doesn’t guarantee a public release. Revolution Team’s deliberate silence on dates and distribution hints at a playbook born fromexperience: build as far as you can, then navigate the legal and logistical hurdles before shouting about it.
If this reaches a public, stable release, it could be the most complete fan-led resurrection of a classic GTA title yet — a modern engine, old-school missions, and the curiously comforting smell of nostalgia remade for newer hardware. If it doesn’t, the teaser will still have done what it set out to do: remind players that San Andreas still matters.
Either way, expect the community to watch this one closely. For now, keep an eye on Revolution Team’s channels and prepare for a slow burn — this project looks huge, and huge things take time.