GTA 5 Liberty City Mod: Legal Action Halts Project

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.

An incredible Grand Theft Auto 5 mod that allowed players to revisit Liberty City has been shut down. The unfortunate news arrives following the fanfare the GTA 5 mod received back in 2024.

While some game companies, like Bethesda, are completely open to seeing their games modded by the public, others go in the complete opposite direction. Attentive gamers have likely seen mods shut down by Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, time and time again. Despite the litigious nature of some game publishers, modders keep at it, and even with this unfortunate development, the team says it plans to continue modding for the game.

The modding team behind GTA 5's Liberty City Preservation Project has sadly announced that the mod has been discontinued. The mod group, named World Travel, explained in its Discord channel that the project had received "unexpected attention" and that after "speaking to Rockstar Games," the team decided to take the mod down. No further information was shared by the modding team regarding what happened, but they did state that they're still interested in modding for GTA, calling it their "passion."

Another GTA Mod Bites the Dust

Although World Travel hasn't explicitly stated that they were forced to shut down the mod, given history, it's what many players suspect. "Talking" with Rockstar Games makes it sound more like an amicable conversation, but it's likely that the team was warned that continuing to make the mod public would result in legal action, like a DMCA takedown. Considering most mods are made entirely by volunteers with no legal representation, DMCA takedowns - or even simply being contacted by the dev - typically leads to a prompt closure of mod projects.

Fans of this particular GTA mod aren't happy with what's happened. Many have called out Rockstar and Take-Two on social media, slamming the companies for being so aggressive towards mods of their games. Players might be more understanding if the GTA 6 was slated to return to Liberty City, but so far, only Vice City and its surrounding locales have been showcased. It's possible that the company was concerned that the mod could impact its sales of GTA 4. However, many would likely object to this logic, as GTA 4 is growing older all the time, and playing the Liberty City Preservation Project mod would still require owning a copy of GTA 5. Regardless of the publisher's reasoning, though, this mod is unfortunately no longer accessible. One can only hope that any further GTA projects from World Travel are luckier, but it doesn't seem like Take-Two's actions regarding mods is going to change anytime soon.