5 GTA fan projects that got taken down by Take-Two

GTA fan projects have always been a huge part of the community, keeping players engaged during the long waits between Rockstar releases with passionate mods, remakes, and experiments. Over the years though, several high-profile projects have been shut down after catching Take-Two Interactive's attention.

Some were taken down quietly, others after legal pressure, but all of them left a lasting impact on the GTA modding community. Here are five GTA fan projects that got taken down by Take-Two, and why each one mattered.

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Listing five GTA fan projects that got taken down by Take-Two

1) Luke Ross VR Mods for GTA V

Luke Ross VR Mods is one of the GTA fan projects (Image via Rockstar Games)

Luke Ross' VR mods were some of the most impressive unofficial GTA fan projects the community had ever seen. They let players experience GTA V in full virtual reality, with proper depth perception and head tracking. Driving through Los Santos or flying above the city genuinely felt like being inside the game.

The mod focused on immersion, stability, and making GTA V playable in VR without completely rewriting the game. That popularity is also what made it a target. Eventually, Take-Two issued takedown actions, forcing the mod to disappear from public distribution.

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2) GTA Underground

GTA Underground in the list of GTA fan projects (Image via Rockstar Games)

GTA Underground was ambitious in a way few GTA fan projects ever tried to be. Built on GTA IV, the project aimed to merge the worlds of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas into one massive playable map. Liberty City, Vice City, Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas all existed together, complete with purchasable businesses and safehouses from the original games.

It was mostly a sandbox experience driven by exploration rather than missions, and heavily shaped by community feedback on GTAForums. Despite years of development and clear love for the series, GTA Underground was ultimately taken down following action from Take-Two.

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3) Liberty City preservation project

Gameplay still from GTA V (Image via Rockstar Games)

The Liberty City Preservation Project set out to do one thing extremely well: bring all of GTA IV's Liberty City into GTA V. Created by the World Travel team, the mod included full boroughs, traffic, pedestrians, interiors like internet cafes, and even radio stations.

What made this case different is how it ended. In January 2025, the team confirmed the project was shut down after friendly discussions with Rockstar Games. It wasn't a hostile DMCA takedown, but rather a mutual agreement after the mod gained massive attention.

Even after its removal, the project is still remembered as one of the most faithful recreations of Liberty City ever made, and proof that fans could seamlessly merge two generations of GTA design.

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4) Project Vice

Project Vice is among the GTA fan projects that got taken down by Take-Two (Image via Rockstar Games)

Project Vice tapped directly into the hype surrounding GTA 6. Using trailers, leaked details, and community mapping efforts, modders worked together to recreate a speculative version of Vice City, now believed to be part of the state of Leonida, inside GTA V.

These maps were huge, often estimated to be more than twice the size of GTA V's world. You could explore beaches, highways, and city blocks long before Rockstar officially revealed the real map. Projects like VIMAP and playable FiveM builds made the experience feel surprisingly complete.

That attention likely sealed its fate. As excitement grew and videos spread, Take-Two stepped in, and Project Vice-related builds were taken down.

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5) re3 / reVC reverse-engineering projects

re3 / reVC was taken down by Take-Two (Image via Rockstar Games || GTA Wiki)

The re3 and reVC projects were different from typical mods. Instead of adding content, they focused on reverse-engineering GTA III and Vice City at the source-code level. The goal was to create modern, open-source versions of the games that required the original game files to run.

These projects fixed long-standing bugs, added modern controller support, improved widescreen compatibility, and allowed the games to run on platforms Rockstar never officially supported. From a technical standpoint, they were impressive and educational.

Take-Two issued DMCA takedowns and filed lawsuits, arguing copyright infringement. Development largely stopped as a result, and the projects now exist mainly as archived examples of how far fans were willing to go to preserve classic GTA titles.

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Edited by Rishi Pallav