Updated GTA: San Andreas on Steam nullifies old save files

Music licensing issues appear to have struck the Grand Theft Auto series, requiring a change to the edition offered on Steam. This time, the update appears to have wiped out save files from the previous version of the game, reports RockstarNexus.com.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is being replaced on Steam by a new edition that removes songs, in addition to some other minor feature changes, reports RockstarNexus.com. The new Steam version adds support for Xbox 360 controllers and removes several resolution options — including 1920x1080, which had been implemented with a patch previously. More concerning is the fact old gamesaves are incompatible. Loading an old save simply starts a new game.

Additionally, 17 songs from the original soundtrack have been removed, apparently because the licensing expired. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas just celebrated the 10th anniversary of its launch (Oct. 26), and when Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, passed its 10th birthday in 2012, its PC edition was temporarily removed from Steam, with music licensing cited as the reason. It later reappeared.

In this case, however, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been replaced with a version that conforms to the high definition port recently released for Xbox 360, which appears to be at parity with the other digital versions — namely, its release on mobile platforms last December.

For a full list of the changes implemented, see the link.