GTA 5 Liberty City Mod: Legal Shutdown Initiated

Summary

• A GTA 5 mod featuring Liberty City was shut down after "speaking to Rockstar Games."
• Many players suspect that the modders were forced to discontinue the project.
• Despite setbacks, the modding team remains passionate and aims to continue modding for the game.

The Grand Theft Auto 5 community faced a significant loss with the discontinuation of a highly anticipated mod that brought back Liberty City. The mod, known as the Liberty City Preservation Project, captured the attention of fans in 2024, only to be shut down recently.

While some game developers, such as Bethesda, embrace modding, others like Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, have a history of clamping down on such projects. Despite these challenges, the modding community remains resilient. The team behind this project, World Travel, expressed their continued dedication to modding GTA, even after this setback.

World Travel announced the discontinuation of their Liberty City mod on their Discord channel, citing "unexpected attention" and a conversation with Rockstar Games as the reasons for their decision. Although the specifics of their dialogue with Rockstar were not disclosed, the team's passion for modding remains undeterred.

Another GTA Mod Bites the Dust

While World Travel did not explicitly state that they were forced to halt their project, many in the community believe that the conversation with Rockstar Games was more of a legal warning than a friendly discussion. The threat of a DMCA takedown often leads volunteer modders, who lack legal support, to quickly shut down their projects.

The fanbase's reaction has been one of frustration and disappointment. Many have taken to social media to criticize Rockstar and Take-Two for their aggressive stance on mods. The situation is particularly frustrating for fans since GTA 6 has only been shown to feature Vice City, with no confirmed plans for revisiting Liberty City. Some speculate that Rockstar might be concerned about the mod affecting sales of GTA 4, although this seems unlikely given the age of the game and the requirement to own GTA 5 to use the mod. Despite the rationale behind the decision, the Liberty City Preservation Project is no longer available. Fans hope that future projects from World Travel will fare better, though it appears unlikely that Take-Two's approach to modding will change soon.