Grand Theft Auto mods impacted by Take-Two’s interactive DMCA reviews

A wave of Grand Theft Auto the changes were hit by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) strikes by publisher Take-Two Interactive, according to a declaration posted on the popular LibertyCity mod repository yesterday.

“All of these mods were ports of locations, towns, cars and characters from old Rockstar Games titles to newer ones. Grand Theft Auto engines, ”LibertyCity administrator jdayke wrote. “Mods will no longer be available for download on LibertyCity. “

Files affected by takedown notices include Vice Cry: remastered, a popular mod that carried the Grand Theft Auto Vice City card for Grand Theft Auto V, and SA2LC, which recreated in the same way Grand Theft Auto San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto III. Others, like OpenManhunt and Bullworth, addition of assets from the Manhunt and Bully franchises at San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V, respectively.

This occurs less than a month after a previous wave DMCA notices against the elderly Grand Theft Auto modifications on ModDB, a much bigger modding site. Much like this week’s teardowns, Take-Two has largely targeted mods that have converted the old ones. Grand Theft Auto active to newer engines.

“I just want to say now that we literally can’t do much other than comply with a DMCA,” David Driver-Gomm, ModDB Community Manager. tweeted at the time, “but as a modder of various games who shipped a few mods in his day, that also saddened me. I wish there was something else to do.

“It is worth noting EULAs for many [Grand Theft Auto games] forbid modification, so if I were you I would try to go to modding games less likely to achieve this result, or at least make backups of your work in case it gets challenged later ” , Driver-Gomm added in a follow-up tweet.

Ozark, a cheat menu for Grand Theft Auto V, was also withdrawn yesterday according to an announcement posted on his official Discord server. Some users, however, think the creator is run an exit scam to avoid delivering purchases while pivoting to a whole new project. Unlike the ports mentioned above, Ozark’s withdrawal was widely celebrated due to its reputation for ruining the Grand Theft Auto Online multiplayer experience.

Kotaku contacted Rockstar Games about the situation but did not receive a response until publication.

It’s unclear at this time what made Take-Two so happy, but current speculation is that it has to do with the trio of remasters the company mentioned on a recent earnings call. If Rockstar is currently working on redesigning games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas for modern consoles, Take-Two would naturally – well, “naturally” in the poisoned brains of greedy business executives, at least – want to eliminate third-party developers who have been doing this kind of pro bono work for years.