Liberty City GTA 5 Mod Shut Down Following Contact with Rockstar Games

A highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 5 mod recreating Liberty City has been discontinued. The news follows the mod's popularity in 2024 and comes as a disappointment to many players.

While some game developers embrace modding, others take a stricter approach. Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games' parent company, has a history of taking action against mods, similar to Nintendo. Despite this, dedicated modding communities persist. The developers behind the "Liberty City Preservation Project," the modding team known as World Travel, announced the shutdown on their Discord server. They cited "unexpected attention" and subsequent discussions with Rockstar Games as the reason for removing the mod. While specifics remain undisclosed, the team expressed their continued passion for GTA modding.

Another Casualty of Aggressive Mod Policies

While World Travel hasn't explicitly confirmed coercion, many suspect the mod's closure resulted from pressure from Rockstar Games. The phrasing suggests a seemingly amicable conversation, but the likely scenario involves a warning about potential legal repercussions, such as a DMCA takedown. Independent modders, often lacking legal representation, typically comply with such warnings to avoid costly litigation.

The community's reaction has been overwhelmingly negative, with many criticizing Rockstar and Take-Two's aggressive stance on modding. This is particularly frustrating given the absence of Liberty City in the currently announced GTA 6, which features Vice City instead. Concerns about impacting GTA 4 sales have been suggested, but this reasoning is widely disputed, as playing the mod still requires owning GTA 5, and GTA 4 is an older title. Regardless, the mod is unavailable, leaving fans hoping for better luck with future projects from World Travel, though Take-Two's approach to modding doesn't seem likely to change.