Simply weeks after publicly releasing the Liberty Metropolis Preservation Challenge – an formidable mod including a playable model of Grand Theft Auto 4’s map to GTA5 – its builders have confirmed the mission is being taken down following conversations with Rockstar Video games.
The Liberty Metropolis Preservation Challenge – which modding group World Journey has been engaged on since 2018 – generated important curiosity when it launched earlier this month, giving GTA 5 gamers an opportunity to discover GTA 4 protagonist Niko Bellic’s previous stomping floor. It featured the whole Liberty Metropolis map – full with site visitors, pedestrians, climate, and extra – alongside enhancements similar to overhauled lighting, higher textures, and new eventualities.
Sadly, the mod’s enthusiastic reception additionally set it on a collision course with Rockstar, and the Liberty Metropolis Preservation Challenge is now formally no extra. As noticed by Insider Gaming, lead modder nkjellman introduced its finish on Discord, writing, “Because of the sudden consideration that our mission obtained and after talking with Rockstar Video games, now we have determined to take down the Liberty Metropolis Preservation mission.”
Liberty Metropolis Preservation Challenge trailer.Watch on YouTube
“We recognize all of the help the mission has obtained,” nkjellman continued, “and we stay up for persevering with to pursue our ardour for modding the Grand Theft Auto sequence.”
Nkjellman did not specify what had drawn Rockstar’s ire, however the studio has frowned on comparable mods earlier than. Again in 2017, it referred to as time on the ‘Liberty Metropolis in GTA5’ mod, saying that whereas it “typically [would] not take authorized motion towards third-party initiatives involving Rockstar’s PC video games which might be single-player, non-commercial, and respect the mental property rights of third events”, it could not enable “use or importation of different IP”, together with its personal. So it appears doubtless that is the place the Liberty Metropolis Preservation Challenge has fallen foul of Rockstar’s guidelines.
Maybe notable, too, is the actual fact an official GTA 4 remaster was reported to have been within the works again in 2022. On the time, the mission was mentioned to have been shelved as a result of poor reception of 2021’s GTA: The Trilogy remasters – however the report additionally referenced a supposedly canned Purple Useless Redemption remaster that did finally present up in 2023. It is doable Rockstar’s rumoured GTA 4 remaster can also be alive and effectively, which could have contributed to the Liberty Metropolis Preservation Challenge’s swift slap-down. However regardless, 2025 is an enormous 12 months for the long-running sequence, with GTA 6 at the moment anticipated to launch this “autumn”.
