Modders who created a project called GTA United more than a decade ago have taken their project offline through fears it will be hit with a DMCA by Take-Two.
Modding games is nothing new and how different owners of those games react to modding differs greatly from studio to studio. Try to do anything to a Nintendo game, or create something Nintendo-based in a non-Nintendo creation game like Dreams, and it probably isn't going to last long. On the flip side, studios like CDPR and Bioware actively encourage modding, hence it being rife in games like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077.
Modding has been a huge part of the GTA community for years with parent company Take-Two doing very little to stop it. However, in 2021 Rockstar's parent company has been coming after the game's modders in a major way. Earlier this year reversed engineered versions of Vice City and GTA 3 were taken down.
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They weren't the only modded GTA projects to be targeted by Take-Two recently, and one group of modders has decided to be proactive about it and take action before Take-Two does. The mod in question is called GTA United and it isn't even for a modern-day GTA game. It's a mod for San Andreas that brings both Vice City and Liberty City under the game's umbrella to create one mega map, hence the name GTA United.
The project first reared its head over a decade ago, but in a post named Final Chapter, its creators revealed it has now been removed and explained why that action has been taken. “This is a step we felt was necessary, as Take-Two and Rockstar Games seems to gradually reject more and more 'Modding' of their games,” the statement reads.
There's no word yet on whether GTA United will one day return. The silver lining here is the reverse-engineered project mentioned above has been put back online. Its creators decided to fight the takedown and after hearing nothing back from Take-Two, their mods were allowed to be reinstated. DMCA rulings state that if a party doesn't respond to a counternotice within an allotted time, the decision can be reversed. It doesn't mean Take-Two won't pop back up with another action down the line, though.
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