The Fortnite GTA Clone Blinked and Its New Name Tells You Who Won

Two weeks ago, JOGO Studios brazenly launched Grand Heist City inside Fortnite Creative with press coverage, key art that referenced Grand Theft Auto 6, and a creator who told interviewers, on the record, that his game existed as a free alternative if Grand Theft Auto hit $100. A week later, the trailer was copyright struck, believed to be at the direction of Take-Two Interactive. Now, the game has been renamed entirely. It is no longer Grand Heist City. It is Cash Heist City.

The Fortnite Creative listing on Epic's official site confirms the change. The island code remains the same: 2843-8555-7658. The game's description, features, and gameplay are identical. The job system, the heist mechanics, the open-world city, the police AI, the 12-player lobbies, all of it is still there. What is gone is the word "Grand," and a pretty much intentional connection with the GTA franchise.

Andre "Typical Gamer" Rebelo announced the rename on his social media channels alongside a new launch trailer on YouTube, reintroducing the game under its new identity.

The reason? Take-Two did what Take-Two always does. While Take-Two and Rockstar Games don't own the open-world genre, this incident makes it clear that you can't name your project like GTA or market it as a direct substitute using visual and verbal references that invoke the franchise by name.

This is a consistent pattern for Take-Two, and it is worth understanding because it clarifies what the company actually cares about and what it is willing to tolerate. Take-Two has struck down GTA 6 map recreation mods built in Grand Theft Auto V. It has killed the alt:V multiplayer mod for Grand Theft Auto Online, issued DMCA claims against reverse-engineered ports of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and even copyright-struck a DMA Design co-founder for posting 28-year-old prototype footage.

JOGO Studios is a 50-person team with Epic Games Mega Grant funding, over 100 million visits on previous Fortnite maps, and a microtransaction model generating real revenue through UEFN's creator payout system. This is not a hobbyist making a fan map in their spare time. This is a funded studio operating a commercial product on Epic's platform, and that studio just learned that the name you choose and the marketing language you use matter as much as the product itself when a company like Take-Two is watching.

Cash Heist City is the result of JOGO Studios learning a painful lesson in real time. The game survives because it no longer uses Rockstar's IP.

The lesson will not be lost on other creator studios building on Fortnite, Roblox, or any other UGC platform.

Cash Heist City is live on Fortnite Creative right now under island code 2843-8555-7658. Whether the rename costs it the viral momentum that the original branding generated, or whether the gameplay is strong enough to sustain attention on its own merits, is the question that actually matters now. The legal fight is over, the name is different, the game continues, and somewhere in Take-Two's legal department, someone is adding this to the folder of things that worked exactly as intended.