Vice City Reborn: Defiant Mod Breaks Chains Despite Takedown

A Russian modding team, Revolution Team, has released its "GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition" mod despite Take-Two Interactive's efforts to remove related YouTube content. This ambitious project transplants the world, cutscenes, and missions of 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City into the Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) engine.

The modders' YouTube channel was deleted without warning by Take-Two, resulting in the loss of a significant community and a teaser trailer that had garnered over 100,000 views. Despite this setback, the team proceeded with the release, offering the mod as a standalone package, a departure from their initial plan to require a legitimate copy of GTA IV. This change, they explained, was necessary to ensure wider accessibility and stability given the circumstances.

Revolution Team emphasizes the mod's non-commercial nature, created by fans for fans, and expresses gratitude to the original game's developers. They hope their project might serve as a precedent for the modding community facing similar challenges.

Take-Two's actions are consistent with its history of aggressively pursuing takedowns of mods, including those for GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. This has created a tense relationship with the modding community. Interestingly, Take-Two has sometimes hired modders for Rockstar Games, and some takedowns have preceded official remasters.

A former Rockstar technical director, Obbe Vermeij, defended Take-Two's actions, stating that the company is simply protecting its business interests. He cited the potential competition between the "GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition" and the GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, and the possibility of a future GTA IV remaster as reasons for the takedowns. Vermeij suggested that the best hope for the modding community is for Take-Two to tolerate mods that don't directly impact their commercial endeavors.

The future of the "GTA Vice City Nextgen Edition" mod remains uncertain, with the question of whether Take-Two will pursue its removal still unanswered.