In light of vast criticism, Take-Two have begun to relax the guidelines dictating which modding communities they'll seek to shut down in the future.
The past week has seen Grand Theft Auto V - one of the best-selling games ever created - receive a slew of negative reviews on Steam dispute being around 4 years old. The reason? Because Rockstar's parent company Take-Two was getting a bit too trigger-happy with Cease and Desist letters.
In the past, their efforts to protect their IP have been relatively justified. Grand Theft Auto V's online component - Grand Theft Auto Online - continues to rake in the cash despite the main-game never never receiving any single-player DLC like its predecessor. The aim was always to help rid the online component of bots, hacks and other cheats that would attempt to destabilise their money machine.
The OpenIV Team Hopes To Import Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City Into Grand Theft Auto V
Recently, however, Take-Two seemed to flex their muscles and fly a bit too close to the sun, opening fire on OpenIV - an mod solely used to spice-up Rockstar's open-world cities with custom models and 3D assets. Having been a staple of their games since Grand Theft Auto IV, fans weren't too happy to see Take-Two fire at what some would consider the crown jewel of the PC GTA community. In response, fans set up petitions totaling around 80,000 supporters with the massive wave of negative reviews on Steam likely threatening sales much more than anything Take-Two have sought legal action against in the past.
The resulting pressure caused Rockstar to have a few words with their holding company to ensure the longevity of the GTA community. The result? That single-player mods would 'generally' be left alone. OpenIV is already free from the shackles of their once damning legal letter.
