GTA San Andreas 14-year-old mod’s developers opted for a self-destruct than a takedown

Fearing a takedown from Take-Two , the creators of a 14-year-old Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas mod have taken it down voluntarily.

GTA United is a PC mod based on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It practically replaces San Andreas’ map by combining the maps from Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto Vice City into one gaming region within San Andreas.

In 2006, work on the free, non-commercial mod began. Early in 2007, the first beta of what was then known as “Vice City 2 San Andreas” was released. Soon after, the “Liberty City 2 San Andreas” beta was released. Then, in late 2007, the beta for GTA United, a collaborative effort, was published. GTA United 1.2 was published five years later, in December 2012. It’s been available since then – until now.

In recent weeks, Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has issued a slew of takedown letters for GTA map mods. GTA: Underground and GTA: Liberty City, a 15-year-old project, were both hit. Even high-definition texturing efforts like Vice Cry were targeted.

Take-lawyers Two’s appear to be scanning modding databases for terms like Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas, according to the modding community. Though no one knows why Take-Two is doing this now (the company has yet to speak), some suspect it has something to do with GTA Online’s recent summer update, or a remaster or remake effort.

Being aware of the situation, makers of the GTA United decided to take the mod offline.

In a post entitled “Final Chapter”, the modders expressed their decision saying: “Due to the increasing DMCA takedowns against various GTA San Andreas map modifications, it is with a heavy heart that we must announce that we decided to preemptively take all remaining instances of GTA United, including its predecessors VC2SA and LC2SA, down.”.