Weeks after modding GTA 6's map to GTA 5, modder pre-emptively pulls all their work offline after a single YouTube strike from Rockstar's owner

Yet another GTA 5 mod project has been pulled from the internet, just weeks after its initial release.

This time, the ambitious mod in question – developed by YouTube creator Dark Space – aimed to add GTA 6's Vice City map to GTA 5, using glimpses of the real thing seen in the official trailer as well as allegedly leaked information to recreate the next best thing to Rockstar's upcoming blockbuster before it even launches. However, as spotted by VG247, Dark Space has now had a video showing off the mod taken down from YouTube, apparently as a result of a copyright strike by Rockstar owner Take-Two Interactive, and the modder has pre-emptively removed download links to the mod itself, too.

"I expected something like this could happen," Dark Space writes on Twitter. "I am surprised they didn't bother emailing me. I would have taken it down if asked." A screenshot of the apparent email the creator received has been shared in a new video on YouTube, too, in which it's stated that, simply, "Grand Theft Auto" content was used throughout the "entire video."

While Take-Two hasn't taken action against the mod itself, Dark Space explains in the video: "I've also removed the download links to my mod, even though they didn't ask me to, but I think it's smarter to get out in front of them, rather than waiting for their email that will never come." VG247 notes that some links on older videos still appear to be active, but these may not lead to the most up-to-date version of the mod.

Unfortunately for the GTA modding community, this sort of action from Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games isn't exactly unheard of – far from it, in fact. This year alone, we've seen a group of GTA 4 modders who were porting Vice City into the 2008 game get their YouTube channel taken down after another apparent copyright strike from Take-Two, while another mod that added GTA 4's map into GTA 5 was hit with a "friendly takedown" after contact with Rockstar Games. While it's worth noting that the team behind the latter mod (the Liberty City Preservation Project) later became "uncertain if this takedown request is genuine," takedowns like this have been happening for years – in 2022, for example, a modder behind VR mods for the likes of GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 was also hit with a DMCA takedown.

Elaborating further in the latest video, Dark Space continues: "Moving forward, I won't be making any more content like that with GTA 5. The game's dead anyways. I only did this project for the community and to make a fun video on it for my viewers. The project was completely free to download. While I did spend tons of time making it, my plan was to earn the money from my video itself."

Despite its history of taking action against GTA mods, a Rockstar-approved GTA 5 modding tool is on the way to "assist the modding community" in the wake of the recent PC upgrade.