Talk of a GTA IV remaster or the official implementation of the game’s NYC-inspired setting in a newer GTA game has been sparked by Rockstar’s recent and slightly different takedown tactics.
Late on Wednesday, we learned that the highly popular GTA V mod called the “Liberty City Preservation Project” was to immediately stop development and remove download links. This was the conclusion of talks the mod creators had with Rockstar Games.
Members of the GTA community were angry and took to social media to share their feelings with Rockstar. However, some fans think there might be a positive to come from this. Additional information provided by the modders since then has also added fuel to the speculation.
Why Do Fans Think There Is More To This?
In recent years, especially since the purchase of FiveM developer cfx.re, Rockstar Games/Take-Two don’t take as strong of a takedown stance as we’ve seen in the past. After all, it does sort of go against them purchasing mods for themselves. Not always though with certain cases.
Rockstar’s behaviour shift is one of the reasons why some people were shocked to see the Liberty City Preservation Project being pushed away. Whilst others were not surprised at all given the long track record.
If there is a project or content in the works at Rockstar that has a direct competitor in the form of a mod, the company would have a real incentive to pursue ending the mod’s production. Despite talks of a GTA 4 remaster depending how well the Definite Edition of the GTA Trilogy did, it is clear that was decided against as we all know how that turned out…
Whilst a GTA IV remaster or remake seems less likely, another theory is that Liberty City could return in GTA VI. It was planned earlier on for GTA V and GTA Online before being cancelled. GTA 6 was said to feature various cities in different countries hence the codename “Project Americas”.
Since being rebooted, the game now only seems to feature Vice City and the wider state of Leonida. There’s always a possibility another location part of the main story that remains a secret; much like Guarma in Red Dead Redemption 2. Or they want to bring it as a DLC for GTA Online 2 for example later down the line.
New Statement Details Rockstar Talks
Furthermore, fans have started to read between the lines of new messages from the modders behind the Liberty City mod. A few hours after it was removed and we reported on it, nkjellman returned to provide additional context to the situation. Below is the full quote:
We’ve noticed a lot of misconceptions and theories surrounding our latest announcement and would like to make a few things clear:
1. This isn’t a DMCA, rather a friendly takedown, mutually agreed upon by all parties involved. There is no negativity between us and Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive.
2. This Discord server will be kept for future projects and community mods.
3. Any LCPP download links are not allowed to be shared on this Discord server.
4. Downloading the mod from unofficial links is not recommended as they may contain malware.
So this reiterates it was not a copyright takedown. If it was, he would have said so originally. Some fans took it as that is the only way a mod can be taken down. The modder even states here it was a mutual agreement between the two parties which was “friendly” rather than a hostile takedown.
Considering it took the group of 12 modders 6 years to bring Liberty City over to GTA V and it was only available for a matter of days, they are remaining quite positive. The group, World Travel, are not holding grudges.
A New Hope?
Some GTA fans speculate Rockstar kindly asked them to cease development and downloads first out of decency given the mod’s popularity. Even though the removal is hurting Rockstar’s reputation with some fans online, it is not as bad as if they issued a DCMA request. Though this is not the first time Rockstar have acted in this way. They can be kind rather than going the legal route straight away. If the mod team refused to comply then Rockstar would likely go down that path.
Interestingly, Rockstar have not shut down map mods featuring Liberty City that run on FiveM servers at the moment. The Liberty City Preservation Project was single player only and the team were not selling it. Meanwhile, some mod creators are selling a Liberty City map mod on Discord which is being used on a service Rockstar now own; spotted by Pickle Mods.
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1 Comment
Boy Rockstar sure knows how to starve everybody just enough to keep them drooling for the BS they’re about to feed them 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️sad really