Rockstar Clarifies GTA V Mod Position

Over the last month, Grand Theft Auto V players have seen their favourite PC modding tools closed down. The move elicited criticism from fans of the game, leaving many wondering why. Now, GTA developer Rockstar Games has made an official statement on the matter. So long as these third-party creations are free and single-player only, Rockstar claims to be cool with them.

“This Is Not a License”

On the Rockstar’s support page, the developer writes:

“Rockstar Games believes in reasonable fan creativity, and, in particular, wants creators to showcase their passion for our games. After discussions with Take-Two, Take-Two has agreed that it generally will not take legal action against third-party projects involving Rockstar’s PC games that are single-player, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of third parties.

This does not apply to (i) multiplayer or online services; (ii) tools, files, libraries, or functions that could be used to impact multiplayer or online services, or (iii) use or importation of other IP (including other Rockstar IP) in the project. This is not a license, and it does not constitute endorsement, approval, or authorization of any third-party project. Take-Two reserves the right to object to any third-party project, or to revise, revoke and/or withdraw this statement at any time in their own discretion. This statement does not constitute a waiver of any rights that Take-Two may have with respect to third-party projects.”

GTA and the War on Modders

Earlier this month, GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive sent a cease-and-desist letter to the makers of OpenIV. OpenIV is a popular modding tool for GTA IV, GTA V, and Max Payne 3. Fans of the tool retaliated by flooding the GTA V Steam page with bad reviews.

Then, a few days ago, GTA Online hacking tool Force Hax was taken down. Force Hax’s creators pulled the software after legal pressure from Take-Two. The creators issued the following statement, likely drafted by Take-Two’s lawyers:

“After discussions with Take-Two Interactive, effective immediately we are ceasing all maintenance, development and distribution of the Force Hax cheat menu services. We will be donating our proceeds to charity and we apologize for any and all problems Force Hax services have caused to the Grand Theft Auto Online community.”