Another Take-Two DMCA has targeted a GTA mods website, fueling speculation that a GTA 4 remaster is in development. Strangely, one of the "mods" is not a mod at all; rather, it's a vanilla save file.
A few weeks ago, Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games officially announced a remaster of the 3D-era Grand Theft Auto games. Those games have now launched, although there have been some problems; the Rockstar Games Launcher servers made them effectively unplayable for some and the PC version has been temporarily pulled, partially due to the discovery of development files in the code. At the same time, Take-Two Interactive has hit a GTA Mods site with a DMCA -- and one of the targeted items is not a mod at all.
What GTA Mods Were Impacted by the Take-Two DMCA?
A total of three GTA mods were targeted by a DMCA from Take-Two Interactive over at franchise fansite libertycity.net, the website announced last night. These included a fan-made remake of GTA Advance, a mod that changes up GTA 4, and a GTA 4 save file.
Let's start with the GTA Advance PC Port Beta 2. As the name suggests, this is a PC port of GTA Advance for the Game Boy Advance. While one might disagree with an effectively abandoned game being targeted in this fashion, hitting this mod with a DMCA actually makes a modicum of sense.
Things get stranger from there, though. The Lost and Damned Unlocked mod was originally uploaded all the way back in 2009. This mod swaps out Niko with the biker Johnny and includes his outfits, bikes, and weapon icons; presumably, the issue here is that it doesn't seem to require that you own The Lost and the Damned DLC to use it. Fair enough.
The oddest target, however, isn't a mod at all -- at least not by any sane definition. The third and final item hit with a DMCA is GTA IV EFLC The Lost and Damned. According to libertycity.net's report, this is simply a save file with approximately 65% of the story completed.
One has to wonder why these specific mods (and a save file) were targeted now. The removal of these mods combined with recent rumors of a GTA 4 remaster suggest that Rockstar Games may have already moved on to working on remaking the next game in the franchise. In the meantime, there's plenty of fun to be had with the GTA Trilogy remaster... as soon as it can be played on PC again.
What do you think of Take-Two targeting these files with a DMCA? Do you think a GTA 4 remaster is in the works? Let us know in the comments below!
