GTA 5 Liberty City Mod Shut Down

Summary

• A Grand Theft Auto 5 mod recreating Liberty City has been shut down following communication with Rockstar Games.
• Many believe the modders were compelled to cease development due to legal pressure.
• Despite this setback, the modding team, World Travel, remains dedicated to future GTA modding projects.

A highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 5 mod, allowing players to revisit Liberty City, has been discontinued. This follows the considerable excitement surrounding its 2024 release.

While some developers, like Bethesda, embrace community modding, others take a stricter approach. Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar Games' parent company) are known for their aggressive stance on modding. Despite this, dedicated modders persevere. Even with this recent closure, the team behind the Liberty City Preservation Project intends to continue modding GTA.

World Travel, the modding team, announced the project's termination on their Discord server. They cited "unexpected attention" and subsequent discussions with Rockstar Games as the reason for removal. While details remain scarce, they affirmed their ongoing passion for GTA modding.

Another GTA Mod Falls Victim to Cease and Desist?

Although World Travel hasn't explicitly confirmed coercion, many suspect legal pressure prompted the shutdown. The phrasing "speaking to Rockstar Games" suggests a seemingly amicable conversation, but it likely involved warnings about potential legal action, such as a DMCA takedown. Given that most modders are volunteers lacking legal representation, such contact often results in project termination.

Fans are expressing their disappointment on social media, criticizing Rockstar and Take-Two's aggressive anti-modding policies. This frustration is amplified by the absence of Liberty City in the upcoming GTA 6, which only features Vice City. Concerns about impacting GTA 4 sales are speculated, but this reasoning is widely disputed, as playing the Liberty City Preservation Project still required owning GTA 5. Regardless of the rationale, this popular mod is no longer available. The hope remains that World Travel's future projects will fare better, but Take-Two's approach to modding appears unlikely to change.