Summary
- A GTA 5 mod featuring Liberty City was discontinued after discussions with Rockstar Games.
- Many suspect the modders were compelled to shut down the project.
- Despite the setback, the modding team remains committed to continuing their work on the game.
An exciting mod for Grand Theft Auto 5 that brought players back to Liberty City has been sadly discontinued. The announcement came after the mod garnered significant attention in 2024.
While some game developers, such as Bethesda, warmly embrace community modding, others, including Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar Games' parent company), frequently oppose it. Despite facing legal challenges from some publishers, modders persist, and the team behind this project remains enthusiastic about their ongoing work with GTA.
The modding group, World Travel, responsible for the Liberty City Preservation Project, announced the project's discontinuation via their Discord channel. They cited "unexpected attention" and subsequent discussions with Rockstar Games as the reasons for pulling the mod. Although details of their conversation with Rockstar were not disclosed, the team emphasized their continued passion for modding GTA.
Another GTA Mod Bites the Dust
While World Travel did not confirm being forced to cease operations, the community widely suspects that legal threats from Rockstar Games, possibly involving a DMCA takedown, played a role. The phrase "speaking to Rockstar Games" suggests a polite exchange, but it's likely the modders were warned of potential legal action. Mod projects, often run by volunteers without legal support, typically shut down quickly when faced with such threats.
The reaction from fans has been overwhelmingly negative, with many taking to social media to criticize Rockstar and Take-Two for their stance against mods. The frustration is compounded by the fact that GTA 6 is set to revisit Vice City rather than Liberty City, leading some to speculate that Rockstar's concern might be related to sales of GTA 4. However, this logic is contested, as GTA 4 is aging, and the mod still required a copy of GTA 5 to function. Despite these arguments, the mod is no longer available. Fans can only hope that future projects from World Travel face better fortunes, though Take-Two's policy on mods appears unlikely to change soon.
