Fans had a wealth of material to explore after an early version of Grand Theft Auto IV surfaced online.
Recently, a user from Edinburgh, where Rockstar North’s headquarters are located, managed to acquire an Xbox 360 development kit. This devkit notably contained an early, unreleased build of Grand Theft Auto IV.
This discovery provided players with an opportunity to examine previously cut content, such as a ferry system, which was not present in the final game.
It seems that the legal teams of Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have become active in response. Files related to this early GTA IV build have been removed from the Internet Archive website.
The user who originally uploaded these files reportedly did not receive any specific notifications regarding their removal. Players widely speculate that a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint was filed with the Internet Archive, leading to the content’s takedown due to copyright infringement.
Despite these efforts, modders had already managed to download the files before their removal. Some have even successfully launched the early GTA IV build and begun to thoroughly explore its unique content.