GTA 5 “Red Dead Redemption” map mode cancelled!

If you didn’t know the Red Dead Redemption V was the mod that was supposed to recreate the wild west game’s map inside of Grand Theft Auto V, but sadly it is canceled. The idea for this was revealed last month, and modding team .White had plans to release a beta version this summer. They also revealed the teaser trailer for it (which was taken down quickly), and just after that lead modder, Mr. Leisurewear made an announcement saying that the team had been “contacted” and that they are canceling the project.

The statement that Mr. Leisurewear wrote on GTAForums.com said “I know this is hard pill to swallow, but as you may have noticed we did get contacted. And we sadly have to say we are stopping this project. So thanks guys, we were all so happy to see this, but it isn’t going to happen, sorry.” During this whole thing happening, at first, Mr. Leisurewear didn’t reveal who contacted them, but after some time it actually turned out to be Take Two. Thanks to some confusion over this, Mr. Leisurewear used this opportunity to clarify some things like the fact that this mod was “never going to be a “PC port.” He started explaining “It was just gonna be the map. Undertaking this sort of a project with additional content ported over was never feasible… we were only gonna get a way to convert the map with both legal copies of each game, and some custom scripted additional content… there was never any intention or mention to either port a story mode over from RDR to V.”

Mr. Leisurewear was also advised by forum users to grab hold of those files and don’t let go, he replied “Why would I throw away 3 years of work… that’s insane, man.” You actually do not have to be a lawyer to see that he will not give the files that ease if he gives them up at all, but you can’t blame the guy, it’s totally understandable. He was also asked to release the .White toolkit by some members of the forums, in order to help strengthen the GTA V modding scene. Mr. Leisurewear replied them “Also, to anyone asking for the .White toolkit, sadly I’m ordered to not release anything,” he said. “And I will probably get a lawsuit if I do officially (which I don’t have right now).”

This actually isn’t anything that new, there is a long history of companies forcing modders and fan developers to pull the plug on their work, and one of the more famous ones is the DoomRL. The free fan-made roguelike, which was launched back in 2002 and was taken down late last year thanks to Bethesda parent company ZeniMax. This is just a shame to watch mainly because fans managed to create fun and unique ideas for beloved games and characters that aren’t necessarily that much explored by the official rights holder. This is, of course, the case with anything Red Dead Redemption-related especially for PC.