Transcription:

so the viral Liberty City preservation
project mod for GTA 5 has been taken
down what yes you heard that right just
a few weeks after its first release the
authors decided to pull the mod due to
the unexpected attention it received and
after discussions with Rockstar Games I
don’t know about you but this whole
situation feels suspicious to me it
seems Rockstar wasn’t happy about the
overwhelming popularity of the mod and
decided to get rid of what they saw as
competition and honestly that’s
completely pathetic once again Star had
the chance to do something great for the
community seeing the massive interest in
this project videos about it garnered
thousands to hundreds of thousands of
views over 50,000 people joined the
World Travel Discord server and numerous
articles were written they could have
turned it into something official
instead Rockstar did what they’ve done
so many times before the mod lasted only
a few weeks after its release at the end
of 2024 the authors who spent 6 years
developing it had created far more than
a basic map Port it included nearly
every element of the GTA 4 environment
Vehicles pedestrians Interiors ambient
details radio stations and even Dynamic
scenarios happening across the map it
added more variety than the original
game like an expanded selection of
police vehicles but now it’s gone and
it’s hard not to feel that Rockstar’s
handling of the situation fell short
what’s more frustrating is that this
isn’t a new story Rockstar has long
prohibited the use of maps from other
GTA games in 5m servers not to mention
the Banning of real world World brands
or licensed Vehicles this project was
designed for both single player and 5m
meaning Rockstar could have legitimized
its use rather than demanding its
removal but no they shut it down as
usual leaving us with just a glimpse of
what could have been here’s the thing
though this takedown feels a bit
different from the usual Rockstar
Playbook normally when a mod violates
Rockstar’s rules the authors get hit
with a formal cease and desist notice or
worse a knock on the door from lawyers
but this time it seems the situation was
handled more friendly judging from the
official post by the mod creators the
agreement to shut it down appears Mutual
that alone is unusual considering this
project did without a doubt violate
Rockstar’s policies for years they’ve
prohibited porting assets or maps from
one GTA game to another yet here we are
with a seemingly peaceful resolution
compare this to the takedown of the GTA
5 VR mod by Luke Ross that project
didn’t even break any of Rockstar’s
rules it didn’t include any game files
yet Rockstar didn’t hesitate to pull it
down without even contact the Creator
first so why was this project treated
differently it’s odd to say the least
and raises the question could Rockstar
be rethinking their approach to mods or
is there something bigger happening
behind the scenes I’ve been thinking
about why Rockstar handled this
situation the way they did and I’ve come
up with three possible explanations
first maybe Rockstar is starting to
realize just how Fed Up the community is
with their strict stance on mods over
the years modders have been forced to
work in secret scared that any success
or visibility could lead to their
projects being shut down this might have
been Rockstar’s attempt to ease some of
that tension by resolving things more
respectfully at least on the surface
second it’s possible Rockstar is already
working on something related to GTA 4
maybe they’re planning a re-release
similar to the Red Dead Redemption port
with enhanced compatibility for modern
consoles like the PS5 and switch or at
the very least they could be patching
the PC version which hasn’t been updated
since 2020 a Liberty City project even
just as a remaster or Port could explain
why Rockstar wanted to eliminate
potential comp comptition the third
theory is the most exciting what if
Rockstar is finally planning to release
the long rumored Liberty City DLC for
GTA online back in December 2023 a leak
hinted at a canceled DLC project that
would have brought Liberty City into GTA
5 and there’s more Joe Rubino a former
Rockstar developer spoke about a planned
DLC focused on Trevor he mentioned how
Standalone DLCs were scrapped because of
the massive success of GTA online you
know what happened was was dude is like
when GTA came out uh GTA online it was
so um so much of a cash cow and people
were loving it so much that it was hard
to make a argument that a standalone DLC
would would would out compete that um I
think Looking Back Now I would say that
you could probably do both you know but
uh that was a business decision that
they made and and you know I was a
little upset about that and actually was
a lot of um a lot of reason for me being
a little sour at that time uh cuz I was
like like yo what the f guys this shit’s
awesome let’s keep going let’s finish
this [ __ ] the question now is have they
picked up this idea again what’s really
interesting is the fact that back in
2016 there was a leaked image that
likely came from this canceled Liberty
City DLC a guy named Adrien paage who
worked as an artist at Rockstar Games
posted the picture on his portfolio
website and as you can see the image
clearly shows Middle Park from GTA 4 but
here’s the thing it’s definitely not a
screenshot from the original four one of
the fans even created a similar shot in
four and the differences are striking
the water in the leaked image looks far
better the trees and rocks are higher
quality and everything just feels more
modern it’s pretty clear that the image
was rendered in an updated version of
The Rage engine the same one used for
GTA 5 so years ago we got this sneak
peek of how Liberty City could look in
the GTA 5 engine but unfortunately
nothing ever came of it officially if
they saw the incredible demand for
Liberty City through preservation
project they might have decided to
repurpose the concept as official
content that would explain why they
didn’t go after World Travel team with a
harsher takedown but as exciting as that
sounds let’s be real an official Liberty
City DLC for online seems unlikely
Rockstar is already fully committed to
GTA 6 and a DLC of this scale would
require a massive amount of effort it
wouldn’t just involve porting Liberty
City into the game they’d need to write
a story create missions and script
everything from scratch at best they
could release Liberty City as a map
expansion for 5m servers allowing
players to explore it legally but even
that feels like a long shot given
Rockstar’s history in an Ideal World
Rockstar would have partnered with the
preservation project creators polished
the project further and made it an
official release for the community but
let’s face it that’s not the world we
live in Rockstar’s priorities rarely
align with what fans or modders want if
a Liberty City DLC isn’t in the cards
then a re-release of GTA 4 seems like
the most plausible scenario ideally we’d
get a definitive addition but after the
RDR port a simpler re-release feels more
realistic GTA 4 hasn’t been updated for
years and the PC version could benefit
from optimizations plus PS5 players
still don’t have access to the game and
a switch Port would likely be well
received that said the GTA 4 modding
Community has done an incredible job
over the years with just a handful of
mods you can make four run beautifully
on Modern PCS tjgm even made a great
video about it still official support
for NextGen consoles would be a welcome
update but here’s the worst case
scenario Rockstar simply wanted to
remove the competition and has no plans
for Liberty City GTA 4 or anything else
if that’s true it’s a slap in the face
to the community modders poured years of
passion into preservation project and
Rockstar shut it down without offering
anything in return the takedown of this
mod hurts me even more because I’ve
always had a much stronger connection to
Liberty City than Los Santos there’s
just something about Liberty City that
feels different maybe it’s the gritty
Urban atmosphere inspired by New York
City’s architecture or maybe it’s the
Nostalgia after all Liberty City city
was where I spent countless hours
modding GTA 4 back in the day and that’s
how I started my YouTube channel over 12
years ago so when the Liberty City
preservation project brought this iconic
map into the GTA 5 engine and in a much
better State than Liberty City remix
ever did I was genuinely excited for
context Liberty City remix is another
mod of LC but it was far glitcher and
less polished than preservation project
what’s funny is that remix is still
available and hasn’t been taken down
while Rockstar went after the team that
clearly delivered a far superior project
it’s almost like the studio knew which
one was more of a threat to their plans
I’m not going to lie it’s frustrating to
think about how Rockstar’s approach
forces modders to stay in the shadows
why would anyone want to spend years
working on an ambitious project if
there’s a real chance it’ll be taken
down the moment it gains attention
modders feel like they have to stay
under the radar hiding their work
instead of proudly sharing it with the
community that’s not just sad it’s
harmful to the GTA Community as a whole
people could collaborate more improve
their projects and make them even better
if they didn’t have to worry about
Rockstar shutting everything down I’ve
touched on Rockstar’s terrible attitude
toward their Community before in my
video and a lot of you agreed with me
back then this situation just proves the
point even further now all we can do is
wait and see if Rockstar gives us
something to make up for the loss of
this project or if they don’t the next
few weeks or months will show us whether
they had a plan all along or if this was
just another case of them stomping on
creativity before the mod was taken down
I saw a lot of your comments saying you
weren’t able to download it because the
demand was so massive that every hosting
site they used kept crashing the team
was looking for new hosting but if you
missed your chance to grab the mod then
well you can thank Rockstar Games for
that at the end of the day the takedown
of the Liberty City preservation project
leaves a lot of unanswered questions was
this just another example of Rockstar
being overly protective of their IP or
could they actually have something in
the works for Liberty City a re-release
of GTA 4 a DLC for GTA online or maybe
nothing at all only time will tell but
one thing is clear this situation has
once again highlighted the strained
relationship between Rockstar and their
most passionate fans now I’d love to
hear from you were you able to try out
the Liberty City preservation project
before it was taken down and most
importantly do you think Rockstar has
plans to release something related to
Liberty City or was this just another
case of shutting down creativity with no
backup plan let me know your thoughts in
the comments down below

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8v4mosa_2c