Liberty City is one of the most beloved fictional locations in Grand Theft Auto since it’s really just Rockstar Games’ version of New York. Hence, a group of modders recreated the city in GTA 5‘s more updated game engine. However, Rockstar Games had to swoop in and demolish this Liberty City recreation mod for GTA 5 after it gained too much popularity.
The sad news came from the mod’s creators themselves, namely nkjellman. According to reports from Insider Gaming, nkjellman posted recently on their Discord server that they’ve decided to take down their Liberty City mod, which they call the Liberty City Preservation Project.
Apparently, the mod became too popular for Rockstar Games to ignore, leading to a rather heartbreaking legal conversation with the studio.
“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. We appreciate all the support the project has received and we look forward to continuing to pursue our passion for modding the Grand Theft Auto series,” njkellman stated.
Unfortunately, nkjellman didn’t give more details on what exactly Rockstar Games asked them to do nor the reason for the takedown. It’s also not clear what the modding team’s plans would be after their passion project was stomped by the game studio.
It Was the Best Mod in GTA 5
To date, many GTA fans and players have hailed the Liberty City Preservation Project as the best work in the GTA modding community. After all, the recreation mod has a working subway network and even the police and traffic you’d expect from Liberty City, making it seem like a remaster of GTA 4.
Players looking to see Liberty City once more will sadly need to play GTA 4 as further mods recreating Liberty City or any other GTA city as a GTA 5 mod will likely be shut down as well. Another similar mod was also notably shut down in 2017 because Rockstar would not allow the importation of other IPs (intellectual property).
Furthermore, GTA fans will need to find something else to do in the meantime while waiting for Rockstar for GTA 6 which so far, hasn’t been generous with its details about gameplay.
