The project was in development for six years.
The Liberty City Preservation, a popular GTA 4 mod for GTA 5, has officially been taken down after intervention from GTA developer Rockstar Games. This ambitious mod, developed by modders World Travel, gave players a chance to explore GTA 4’s Liberty City.
According to a report by Insider Gaming, Discord user and project creator nkjellman confirmed the shutdown. “Due to the unexpected attention that our project received, and after speaking with Rockstar Games, we have decided to take down the Liberty City Preservation Project,“ they wrote. Nkjellman also thanked everyone for the support they received for the project.
The decision comes as no surprise for those familiar with Rockstar’s stance on mods that make use their intellectual property.
What is the Liberty City Preservation Project?
The Liberty City Preservation Project was a mod for GTA 5 that allowed players to revisit the iconic Liberty City map from GTA 4.
The project has been worked on by World Travel since 2018, and was released a few weeks ago. The mod brought Liberty City to life, complete with traffic, pedestrians, weather, and sound effects from the original game. It even made a fully functional subway system and accurately recreated NPC behaviour, making it one of the most ambitious and accurate GTA mods to date. However, the mod’s enthusiastic reception eventually brought it under Rockstar’s radar, resulting in its abrupt shutdown.
Why was the Liberty City Preservation Project shut down?
This isn’t the first time that Rockstar Games had shut down similar mods. In 2017, a report by Eurogamer shared how the company shut down a similar mod named “Liberty City in GTA 5.” In that situation, the devs said that it “generally [would] not take legal action against third-party projects involving rights of third parties,” and it would not allow “use or importation of other IP,” including its own.
However, while Rockstar is known to take down such mods, they also sometimes end up hiring the projects' modders, like those involved in the FiveM project (report by Eurogamer).
As of now, Rockstar Games has not commented on the mod’s removal.
