Liberty City Mod for GTA 5 Discontinued

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. While some game developers embrace modding, others, like Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive, are known for taking a more restrictive approach.

The modding team, World Travel, behind the "Liberty City Preservation Project," announced the shutdown on their Discord server. They cited "unexpected attention" and conversations with Rockstar Games as the reason for removing the mod. While the specifics remain undisclosed, the team expressed their continued passion for GTA modding.

Another Casualty of Aggressive Mod Policies

Although World Travel hasn't explicitly confirmed coercion, many players suspect the mod's closure resulted from pressure from Rockstar Games. Contact from the game developer often precedes legal action, such as DMCA takedowns, which smaller modding teams are ill-equipped to handle.

The mod's demise has angered many fans, who have criticized Rockstar and Take-Two's aggressive stance on modding. This is particularly frustrating given the lack of confirmation of a Liberty City return in GTA 6, which currently focuses on Vice City. While Take-Two might argue the mod could impact GTA 4 sales, this reasoning is widely disputed, as playing the mod still requires owning GTA 5.

Despite this setback, the mod's discontinuation highlights the ongoing tension between modding communities and publishers with stringent intellectual property policies. The future of World Travel's modding endeavors remains uncertain, but the community hopes future projects will fare better. However, Take-Two's approach to modding doesn't appear likely to change in the near future.