This week, the Grand Theft Auto V/Online community has been in absolute uproar over a cease-and-desist letter Rockstar and Take-Two sent to the operators of OpenIV, a modding tool that’s served the series’ community for almost 10 years.
“Take-Two’s actions were not specifically targeting single player mods,” Rockstar told PC Gamer. “Unfortunately OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody. We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players.”
Players have questioned this rationale since single-player mods are theoretically not available to play in GTAO. Rockstar has said it will not pursue players who used these tools, because duh.
The Russia-based OpenIV team told followers that it’s known for a long time it was operating in a “gray zone” and did its best to stay clean. While the modders say they believe they would prevail in court, they “decided not to” fight the megacorp because of the time an expense; consequently, they complied with the takedown request.
GTAV’s Steam reviews have taken a massive nosedive thanks to a concerted campaign by gamers to tank its ratings. As I type this, the Reddit subs for the game are handling everything with grace and proportion like adults, as evinced by the “FUCK TAKE-TWO” blimp mod and the video overtly comparing Take-Two to Nazi Germany currently on page one. There’s at least one petition floating around too, but it hasn’t gained much traction. Not a great day for the modding community all around.
