GTA IV in GTA V: Liberty City Preservation Project shuts down
The mod that brought all of GTA IV’s Liberty City into GTA V is gone just weeks after release, following talks with Rockstar. What it was and why it was pulled.
This article is from January 15, 2025. Some details may have changed since then.
Add GTA House as a preferred news sourceSee more of our GTA, Red Dead and Rockstar Games news on Google.Add on Google (opens in a new tab)It didn't last long. On January 15, 2025, the Liberty City Preservation Project, the mod that brought GTA IV's city into GTA V, was pulled by its creators, the World Travel modding team, after talks with Rockstar Games. Its official trailer had gone up on December 14, 2024, only weeks earlier.
What the mod was
This wasn't just an imported map. The project brought all of Liberty City into GTA V, close to an expansion pack in scope: GTA IV's entire map and interiors, its vehicles and pedestrians, plus its ambience, radio stations and even a working subway, all upgraded with GTA V's lighting, dynamic weather and sharper textures.
In story mode, Liberty City sat alongside Los Santos, and you could travel between the two. On FiveM, the server platform Rockstar bought in 2023, it replaced Los Santos because of technical limits.
A "friendly" takedown, says the team
The team is clear that this wasn't a DMCA takedown. One of its leads, nkjellman, said the decision came after speaking with Rockstar, citing the unexpected amount of attention the project had drawn. The team's statement calls it a friendly takedown, mutually agreed on by everyone involved, with no bad blood with Rockstar or Take-Two. Some outlets, citing Eurogamer, reported that Rockstar asked for it to stop over unlicensed use of its IP, which the team hasn't confirmed.
World Travel says it will keep modding GTA. The channel that posted the trailer is keeping it up, with a farewell note in the description.
Why now
A few things were working against it. It used GTA IV's assets inside another game, licensed music included, which has always been sensitive territory. It also isn't the first time: a similar attempt to bring Liberty City to GTA V was cancelled back in 2017. And then there's the timing: with GTA 6 on the horizon and interest in the series at a peak, Rockstar doesn't want fan projects making bigger headlines than its own games.
That's fueled a fan theory that Rockstar has plans of its own for Liberty City, whether a GTA IV remaster or a GTA 6 expansion. Nothing supports it, so treat it as speculation.
Our take
Calling it "friendly" doesn't make it any less frustrating for players who'd waited years for something like this. But it was predictable: putting an entire Rockstar game inside another, music and assets included, is exactly what the company won't tolerate. What it does prove is that appetite for a return to Liberty City is as strong as ever. And just days later, another team tested Take-Two's patience with an even bigger project: GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition.
