Unsurprisingly, a dedicated Grand Theft Auto fan's months-long project to recreate parts of Vice City and Leonida in Grand Theft Auto V has ended. The creator, @Dark_SpaceYT, spent countless hours crafting a detailed homage to Grand Theft Auto 6, found their showcase video suddenly removed from the internet without warning or explanation.
Apparently, Take-Two Interactive had issued a copyright claim against the video over the weekend, effectively erasing the creator's hard work from public view. In a statement on X, the modder expressed surprise at the lack of communication from Take-Two. "I would have gladly taken it down if they had just asked." they explained.
This incident is far from isolated. Take-Two has a history of taking down content that it believes infringes on their copyrighted material, with mods, more often than not, finding themselves in a grey area. However, what's particularly surprising is that the GTA 6 map recreation was recreated from the ground up, using the GTA V version of the RAGE engine using publicly available information.
To be fair, Take-Two isn't completely unjustified in its action. While original, the GTA 6 map mod did use leaked information to recreate the HD Universe version of Vice City in GTA V. Besides, if the rumors are true that Rockstar Games will finally reveal a new trailer for_GTA 6_soon, it could impact the company's official marketing plans for the game.
For a long time, many have hoped for Rockstar and Take-Two to approach a more balanced approach that respects both the rights of content creators and the passion of fans, especially now that it's rumored that GTA 6 will copy Fortnite and Roblox in effectively becoming a creator-friendly platform that could very well spell bad news for Grand Theft Auto 7. As for the modder's creator, they have since uploaded a video on YouTube detailing the situation and calling for Take-Two to treat content creators like themselves better.
Interestingly enough, Take-Two has yet to take down the mod that aims to make Grand Theft Auto III playable on the Sega Dreamcast. After going public last year, it's now running better than ever on what was supposed to be its original platform. The team is now planning to take what they've learned and port Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to the long-defunct SEGA console.
