Grand Theft Auto 5 fan modders are shutting their projects down, after receiving legal threats – but not from whom you think.
You may remember FiveM, the modders who allowed players to go online without worrying about bans. At the time, Rockstar said the mod had code that could allow piracy, and proceeded to ban everyone who helped make it from Rockstar Social Club.
Now, the makers of FiveM, as well as another mod, GTA:MP, have been contacted by Take-Two Interactive. They told FiveM’s makers that they didn’t want to pursue legal action if they didn’t have to, but they investigated FiveM’s code and ascertained they have a solid case against FiveM.
For GTA:MP, things are a little different, as they actually already received Rockstar’s blessing prior to this. Instead, Take Two explained to them that they view GTA: MP as a rival of their business. No threats, but they were asked to shut it down, and this mod team agreed to do so.
The GTA: MP team made it quite clear that they were shut down by Take-Two Interactive, Grand Theft Auto 5’s publisher, and not Rockstar Games, its developer. In their words:
Grand Theft Auto and all its content is produced by Rockstar Games Inc. and published and owned by Take2 Interactive Inc. We, as developers, respect other developer’s intellectual property and their legitimate interests. Rockstar’s developers have invested so much time to create this beautiful game. We have repeatedly stated our position: We are not going to cross this line, we won’t damage them.
This may sound now that we never got supported and everything is a lie. If you think so now, that’s not true. We were in contact with Rockstar Games and got feedback from them. But you have to see that Take2 Interactive Inc. is the publisher and Rockstar Games only the developer.
GTA: MP also clarified that, to meet Take-Two’s wishes, they are also not going to release any of the code for others to launch similar projects. For what it was worth, when Take-Two contacted GTA: MP they were still not ready to go live.
Do you think Take Two was in the right? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
