UPDATE: 11/15: After a weekend of frustration for anyone who purchased Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy on PC last week, the games are now finally available to play.
Both the trilogy and the Rockstar Games Launcher became unavailable without explanation on launch day (Nov. 11). The launcher came back online on Nov. 12, but the GTA trilogy was absent. Rockstar Support explained that the development team needed to "remove files unintentionally included in these versions." A day later and the trilogy reappeared along with an apology from Rockstar:
"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and are working to improve and update overall performance as we move forward."
As VGC reports, the files Rockstar needed to remove included unlicensed music, full game scripts with developer notes, content that had been cut from all three games, and the infamous "Hot Coffee" mini-game from San Andreas.
Original Story 11/12:Rockstar has been forced to pull Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition from sale on the PC because it's currently unplayable.
As IGN reports, the fault isn't with the games, but with Rockstar's requirement that the Rockstar Games Launcher be used to play them. The Launcher stopped working yesterday and has been down for over 15 hours now. It means anyone who purchased the trilogy on launch day yesterday is unable to play any of the three games until Rockstar gets the launcher working again.
The Rockstar Support Twitter account explained that the Launcher is "temporarily offline for maintenance" and that "Services will return as soon as maintenance is completed." It's very unlikely the developer would plan maintenance and downtime on the same day it was launching a trilogy of games, so this looks to be a serious problem Rockstar as yet hasn't been willing to share details about publicly.
PC gamers are obviously quite frustrated and angry about this and want to know when they can play the games they just purchased. Rockstar continues to be tight-lipped about the situation, with a more recent support tweet simply stating, "We thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to work on restoring services for the Rockstar Games Launcher and supported titles."