Take-Two Once Again Attacking GTA 5 Modders, Shuts Down AI-Powered Story Mod

Take Two have been well known to hate modders for GTA V which was something that we thought would be behind them following Rockstar hiring the modding team behind FiveM & RedM. Unfortunately, Take Two still hates modders and has taken down a mod which used AI to create a story-driven expansion for the game.

GTA V Inworld Sentient Streets Mod

As shared by dsogaming.com, a mod by the name of Inworld Sentient Streets created by ‘Bloc’ was released recently and made use of AI-powered NPCs. The mod creates a new storyline with you playing the role of an officer within the LSPD and involved interacting with criminals and making your own choices as a police officer fighting crime. The mod used AI to create these situations with AI voices powered by an engine called Inworld AI Character Engine which allows the user to have open-ended conversations with a variety of different NPCs.

Take Two Issues DMCA Takedown

This leads us to today where it has been revealed by Bloc on their YouTube page that Take Two Interactive has hit their channel with a copyright strike on a video surrounding the mod taking down the video. Following this their Netlify account which hosted the installation guide was suspended and then the NexusMods page followed and Bloc chose to remove the post on gta5mods themselves.

This is once again a showcase of the greed and ignorance Take-Two has surrounding modders who put in the work to create a brilliant mod for the game which is nearly 10 years old. Additionally this mod doesn’t affect the multiplayer aspect of the game at all so won’t harm their profits. This is embarrassing, especially following the hiring of FiveM developers whom Take Two have previously had issues with as well.

Here’s the full statement from Bloc via YouTube Community

Take-Two Interactive(Rockstar) Removes My “AI Powered GTA V: Story Mode with AI NPCs” mod

Hello everyone, sorry for this slightly a long post, but reason of that is I want to touch on some things.

Yesterday, Take-Two Interactive hit my channel with copyright strike about my video on GTA V mod and YouTube removed the video immediately without giving any chance to explain myself. The reason for this takedown shown by Take-Two Interactive to YouTube was because I used their software (GRAND THEFT AUTO V) in the video. No one from Take-Two Interactive contacted and ask me anything prior to this, they just took down the video out of nowhere. Two days ago, my account on Netlify was also suspended. I used Netlify to host the installation guide for the mod. I should not claim anything without proof, of course, since netlify didn’t bother to give any explanation, but to me, it looks like these two cases are seem to be related. A video that had over 100,000 views and an approximate video like rate of 98.4%. Hence, it’s not related to negative reception, on the contrary, the video is liked by many, as you can understand from this ratio. I contacted claimant email address shown on YouTube (which was Take2 email address), was hoping that there might be a small misunderstanding or that they could explain the reasoning behind it. Perhaps this occurred automatically, but the evidence suggests a deliberate manual DMCA takedown request from them. I also didn’t get any response back. It looks like they are just attacking to mod from all fronts.
About the mod itself, at this moment, nexusmods version has been removed, by DMCA Takedown by Take-Two Interactive just today. Most likely this is what will happen to gta5mods too but I removed that one myself to avoid any legal trouble.

I must say, as a person who grew up with the Grand Theft Auto series and enjoyed all the games throughout the years, this hostile attitude towards me and the mod is very disheartening. This copyright strike on my channel hinders my ability to monetize my videos for the upcoming 3 months and remains as a mark on the channel, but more importantly, this can lead to account termination if it continues. If there was something violating the policy in the video (such as something I said, the thumbnail, or something in the description, etc.), I would be happy to discuss that with Take2’s contact person if they would just send me an email. Instead, they chose a non-communicative approach. If the real reason of this takedown is really me using GTA V in the video, then one might ask, if using GTA V in the video is a copyright strike reason, how is it possible that there are millions of YouTube videos on here at this very moment that showcases or simply does lets-play videos for over a decade without any problems? Unfortunately, this seems to look like an excuse to attack and take a stance against the mod. Which is somewhat puzzling to me, considering that the mod itself is both FREE and open-source. The mod is available at two separate locations for download, where you don’t even need to register on those pages to be able to download it. The mod can be played freely without any cost, as demonstrated by the thousands of players who have downloaded and enjoyed it thus far. The mod does not utilize any voices from Grand Theft Auto nor does it distribute anything it shouldn’t. I haven’t even included my Patreon link in any of the mod descriptions or videos to avoid any potential controversy. I am not a lawyer, but as far as I am aware, mod is not violating any Grand Theft Auto or YouTube policy. Whether you like it or not, or dislike the idea of having AI in video games, is one thing. However, while the mod itself does not appear to be violating anything, removing the video and issuing a copyright strike without any communication is another matter. I can, of course, raise an objection through YouTube’s objection system, but this escalates things to legal authorities. I am a single modder who does this in my free time for fun, so I don’t have the resources to legally defend myself in this situation. Frankly, I also don’t want to spend time on this.

Because I was never actually a YouTuber and my subscriber count stayed in mid to low range, I never relied on YouTube’s revenue, so not being able to get monetized for 3 months is not a life changing deal for me. However, the knowledge that all my videos will continue to display ads to you, someone who benefits from my videos and efforts while not allowing me to get anything, is a factor that discourages me from creating more content and mods in the future. Knowing that large corporations can issue strikes based on arbitrary reasons, which can cause your work to go in vain in moments, is also discouraging to say the least. I am posting this post while understanding that not many people will be able to see it due to the modest size of my channel. Nevertheless, I hope that my subscribers, at least, can read and comprehend the unpleasant aspect of this action taken by one of the world’s biggest game company. I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me thus far, whether through subscriptions or contributions. If you’re inclined, please consider visiting Patreon and supporting me there. I believe that may be the only remaining option to support me at this point.

I am hoping that anyone who enjoyed this mod will remember this dishonest action taken by Take-Two whenever they hear any news about the Rockstar. Rather than chasing small mods, perhaps they should focus on creating proper remakes with better pricing policy or should stop removing cars from Online to sell same cars to people 🙂

I will end this post with Rockstar’s own words on modding, and I invite you to consider whether you believe this action aligns with their public statement from 2022 or not:
“Rockstar Games has always believed in reasonable fan creativity and wants creators to showcase their passion for our games”