The team behind the Grand Theft Auto modding tool OpenIV that briefly shut down following a cease-and-desist order from Take-Two Interactive has issued a statement in which it shared some of its plans for the future of the software. It's mostly good news—as suggested a couple of weeks ago, development of OpenIV will continue apace. But the silver lining has a grey cloud.
"First of all, we want to say 'Thank you' to everyone who supported us in this tough situation. We’re very grateful for your support; for demonstration of the fact, that modding community is still a minority, but very vocal, creative and determined minority. You made the impossible and this story is already scribed into the history of PC gaming and the Internet itself," the OpenIV team wrote.
"The development of OpenIV will be continued as before. OpenIV never supported GTA Online modding and will not support it in the future. Our work will be continued within the Rockstar modding policy," it continued. "Unfortunately, our highly anticipated mod 'Liberty City in GTA V' will not be released because it clearly contradicts with Rockstar modding policy. Liberty City mod is a big loss for us, since it was a huge part of our motivation to push OpenIV functionality."
The Liberty City mod was a massive effort to recreate the entirety of Grand Theft Auto 4's home city in GTA5. The plan was to release it as single-player DLC, and it would actually exist in the game simultaneously with GTA5's Los Santos, on the other side of the water. Work had come a long way and it was expected to be ready for release this summer. It's great that OpenIV will continue, but the loss of Liberty City hurts.
As for what comes next, that appears to be up in the air: the OpenIV team said only that "we are currently revising our plans for the future."
