GTA 5 Liberty City Mod Shuts Down

Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two have been embroiled in controversy among Grand Theft Auto V players recently when they attempted to shut down a popular modding tool for the open-world title. While the two companies have since eased up on their initial crackdown, their strict modding policy has resulted in another upcoming mod being shut down.

The group behind the popular Grand Theft Auto modding tool OpenIV announced in a post on the GTA forums that it has had to cease work on its "Liberty City in GTA V" mod. The project would have allowed players to import the GTA IV setting, Liberty City, into the series' most recent title. However, the group explained that the project was in violation of Rockstar's modding policy and as a result had to be shut down. While the group didn't elaborate what the mod specifically violated, it may be due to the fact Rockstar's policy expressly forbids the "importation of other IP (including Rockstar IP) in the project."

OpenIV suffered a similar fate last month when Take-Two issued a cease and desist order against the modding tool. According to the company, the reason the tool was targeted was because it "enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody." Soon after, however, Rockstar intervened on the mod's behalf and convinced Take-Two to back off on its decision, allowing development on OpenIV to continue with a focus on single-player mods. The publisher had previously suggested one of its main issues entailed mods that could impact GTA Online.

Take-Two's recent crackdown on mods has not been popular among fans. Following the initial shutdown of OpenIV, players flooded the GTA V's Steam page with a stream of negative reviews, tanking the game's review average, while a petition to save the tool garnered over 80,000 signatures. But while the Liberty City mod may be no more, the group behind the project has announced it intends to continue working on OpenIV "within the Rockstar modding policy."