Offering players the chance to revisit the world of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a recent mod has come under fire from Take-Two, but its creators are not backing down.

Developed by Russian modding group Revolution Team, a brand-new Grand Theft Auto mod is blowing up online, not just thanks to its ability to allow players to experience Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV, but because of its attempts to be taken down.

The GTA Vice City: Next-Gen Edition ports the world, cutscenes and missions of the 2002 Rockstar game into GTA IV’s engine for players to dive into for free.

However, it seems as though Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive is less-than-pleased with this mod as it was recently responsible for the deletion of the Revolution Team YouTube channel without any warning.

As a result, Revolution Team posted the following statement: “A huge amount of effort and time was invested into the channel, including hundreds of hours of streams dedicated to the mod’s development. Additionally, we lost connection with our international audience, which was a significant part of our community.”

It continued, “The teaser trailer for GTA Vice City Next-gen Edition gained over 100,000 views and 1,500 comments in less than a day. Unfortunately, the channel was removed without any possibility of recovery. This was a cruel move from them, but we have already accepted the situation, since we cannot influence it.”

Despite Take-Two’s attempt to halt the release of the mod, Revolution Team has decided to release it anyway and not only that, but the team has also made changes to a previous requisite.

In an attempt to “show respect to the publisher”, the mod previously required users to own a legitimate copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.

However, Revolution Team has now released it as a standalone, installation-ready package that can be accessed for free.

“In light of the current uncertainties, we had to make this change to ensure the mod’s stable performance for the widest possible audience,” the statement continued.

We can expect Take-Two to be less than pleased that the mod has gone ahead with its release.

However, for fans of the Grand Theft Auto series, this is an exciting download to get stuck into.