GTA V Publisher targets modders with private investigators

[Misanthrope]

‘GTA V’ PUBLISHER TARGETS MODDERS WITH PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS
 

 
 
 
While it seemed like Take Two previously hit rock bottom in their illogical disdain for modders this actually establishes a new low: Mod our game? We'll hire a private investigator to track you down:

The author of FiveM, a popular online multiplayer mod for Grand Theft Auto V, yesterday claimed that the studio had sent private investigators to his home in order to shut down the project.

The modders’ post, originally published on Reddit, is copied below:

So I just got a pair of PIs at my door claiming to be sent by Take Two, handing me a phone with a person somewhere in the UK or US or whatever to ‘discuss how to cease my activities with regard to Grand Theft Auto’, that ‘they know what happened before with Activision and want to not get the lawyers involved at this time’, however they ‘have tested their legal standing already and are quite certain of their point’ and ‘aren’t willing to accept any solution other than ceasing my activities’. Oh, they also ‘couldn’t disclose any conversations they’re having with other modification developers’, didn’t want to talk about general modification policy as ‘it was just about my case’ and admitted they ‘looked through my source code’.
 
Soon afterwards, the modders shut down their website and released a statement explaining what had happened in greater detail.
 
We want to say something about the circumstances. There are a lot of dicussions and we have got a lot of requests. We confirm that private investigators also visited bit and xforce.

 
While I normally wouldn't trust an article with reddit as its source, they seem to have several reports and not just one as well as a request for comment to Take two so they did some due diligence.
 
Now oddly enough, this entire drama looks like it could easily be the plot of a GTA V mission in and of itself: Send Michael to chase after some millennials modding our damn game!
 
Source: http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/11/11/gta-v-publisher-targets-modders-with-private-investigators/

 

EDIT: As per request, additional explanation and points on the mods in question http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/is-it-just-a-game-mod-or-is-it-facilitating-piracy/

[Trik'Stari]

.......they really need to grow the hell up.

 

People are going to mod your game. Deal with it.

[KemoKa]

Modding helps sell the game. I don't see why they feel their profit margins are being damaged by this. If anything, they should be benefiting.

Wankers.

[KenLeeJL]

Why are they doing this? Game mods are great

[lubblig]

I don't even understand why they don't want mods... They are great.

[minibois]

Sad. Just sad.

I am really losing faith in Take Two and Rockstar too.

 

I am someone who likes to mod their game and publishers and game developers should understand the modding is done with passion for the game. The intention not to harm (at least for most of the modders).

With all this news about Rockstar/Take Two hitting modders and with the disappointment I had with GTA V: I will probably not purchase GTA 6.

[The Official Czex]

Why do you think I bought MineCraft? To mod it! It looks beautiful with some nice shaders.

[AresKrieger]

I think this is a repost as I commented on a similar topic with this.

But I can't find the post so whatever. It was in PC Gaming apparently so whatever now it's news which is fine by me http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/482761-gta-5-modder-had-private-investigators-at-his-door-allegedly-sent-by-take2-interactive/

[Sauron]

...or, if they really cared they should have removed mod support from the game straight up and have been clear about it when marketing it, instead of taking people's money and THEN being like "oh btw, if you mod it we'll sue you"

[CommandMan7]

First of all, I'm going to go deaf with all the yelling that's been happening recently in news thread titles. Please stop using all caps.

 

But once you do some digging, this is a very specific case. The mod, in short, allows you to bypass DRM and get into your own separate online mode.

 

 

 

Patankar did concede that FiveM does get around the "GTA V launcher," which usually gates the game's content behind some digital rights management.

 

With the majority, if not all, of pirated GTA games only being able to run singleplayer, it's not suprising R* wants this gone.

 

@Misanthrope 

 

You might want to add this source plus an explanation of what this mod is specifically to prevent the knee-jerk "R* is stupid they hate all mods"

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/is-it-just-a-game-mod-or-is-it-facilitating-piracy/

[Prysin]

lol, and i thought Ubisoft and Nintendo was bad

[AresKrieger]

Ah I found it, it wasn't in tech news, it was in PC gaming lol

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/482761-gta-5-modder-had-private-investigators-at-his-door-allegedly-sent-by-take2-interactive/

[Mugsley]

Modding helps sell the game. I don't see why they feel their profit margins are being damaged by this. If anything, they should be benefiting.

 

But it is eating into their profit margin (as far as they're concerned), what with the 'shark cards' you can buy to get in game currency in the Online Mode only

 

If you have your own server that is modded then no one would need to buy anything, they'd just spawn that stuff in

[KemoKa]

They should just not allow modding. Then they'll see what eats into their profit margins more.

[AresKrieger]

But it is eating into their profit margin (as far as they're concerned), what with the 'shark cards' you can buy to get in game currency in the Online Mode only

 

If you have your own server that is modded then no one would need to buy anything, they'd just spawn that stuff in

There lies the problem micro-transactions, which need to die, Rockstar doesn't have my support on this one as what they are trying to protect is a practice that is ruining the industry as a whole, the only time micro-transactions are acceptable imo are when the game is free to play, not 60 bucks.

[Misanthrope]

First of all, I'm going to go deaf with all the yelling that's been happening recently in news thread titles. Please stop using all caps.

 

But once you do some digging, this is a very specific case. The mod, in short, allows you to bypass DRM and get into your own separate online mode.

 

 

With the majority, if not all, of pirated GTA games only being able to run singleplayer, it's not suprising R* wants this gone.

 

@Misanthrope 

 

You might want to add this source plus an explanation of what this mod is specifically to prevent the knee-jerk "R* is stupid they hate all mods"

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/08/is-it-just-a-game-mod-or-is-it-facilitating-piracy/

 

Edited, on both things in fact.

[Mugsley]

There lies the problem micro-transactions, which need to die, Rockstar doesn't have my support on this one as what they are trying to protect is a practice that is ruining the industry as a whole, the only time micro-transactions are acceptable imo are when the game is free to play, not 60 bucks.

 

Yeah I agree, this decision was purely business. Although I think that the way R* have implemented micro-transactions has been better than most attempts, it doesn't feel like it's thrown the balance off that much, although actually trying to get money through playing is a pain, but do-able. 

 

But investigators? Really? The mod has 24,000 odd downloads, some of those guys probably already own the game on a console and got it before they announced they were making a PC version, and of that 24,000, how many would've paid for the micro-transactions anyway? They haven't lost much if anything at all because of this mods existance

[dragosudeki]

There lies the problem micro-transactions, which need to die, Rockstar doesn't have my support on this one as what they are trying to protect is a practice that is ruining the industry as a whole, the only time micro-transactions are acceptable imo are when the game is free to play, not 60 bucks.

Just to make things very clear: (quote from original source)

 

So I just got a pair of PIs at my door claiming to be sent by Take Two,

Take Two are the people who own Rockstar Games, so it sounds like Rockstar would have no involvement in the matter. If Rockstar was under a better company, I would think (or would like to think) the entire choice of microtransactions may have been different. In my opinion, a lot of the problems are caused from decisions of the owners or publishers of the dev studios, since they have the authority on what happens with the game. I would assume that there is a different mindset between people who only look at profits and the people who develop the game.

[Misanthrope]

Just to make things very clear: (quote from original source)

Take Two are the people who own Rockstar Games, so it sounds like Rockstar would have no involvement in the matter. If Rockstar was under a better company, I would think (or would like to think) the entire choice of microtransactions may have been different. In my opinion, a lot of the problems are caused from decisions of the owners or publishers of the dev studios, since they have the authority on what happens with the game. I would assume that there is a different mindset between people who only look at profits and the people who develop the game.

 

It is an important distinction indeed. This is like saying "Fuck Bungie" vs "Fuck Microsoft" or "Fuck Infinity Ward" vs "Fuck Activision" The only comment is that curiously enough most big time developers actually do suffer without major publisher backing: at the end of the day all of this stupid fucking BS (because there is no other way to described imo) does enable massive dev teams and accompanying resources. Even changing to a new major publisher hurts devs greatly (See Bungie with Destiny vs what they did under Microsoft)

[AresKrieger]

Just to make things very clear: (quote from original source)

Take Two are the people who own Rockstar Games, so it sounds like Rockstar would have no involvement in the matter. If Rockstar was under a better company, I would think (or would like to think) the entire choice of microtransactions may have been different. In my opinion, a lot of the problems are caused from decisions of the owners or publishers of the dev studios, since they have the authority on what happens with the game. I would assume that there is a different mindset between people who only look at profits and the people who develop the game.

True it is Take-Two's fault but they are Rockstar's publisher, it's just like how EA fucks up many of Dice's games, the problem is what publishers out their are good about these sorts of things minus say Bethesda/Zenimax, which lets the devs do their own things and are lax about most issues, I can't think of any.

[Mugsley]

-snip-

 

Well said, I wasn't sure how to make this point earlier but you worded it very well

 

R* used to commend members of the community when they modded the game, before they brought in any kind of online system. They didn't seem to care as long as you bought their game (or tool as it became)

 

It's such a big IP and I am guessing that the developers don't want a beloved franchise soured with videos circulating with a (possibly) buggy online experience that they didn't create when there is a (somewhat) fully functioning designed by the creators themselves. And at this point who is going to see GTA and think "huh, what is this game, let me look at some videos", only to be put off by videos of the mod

[BuckGup]

Look at Gmod. It survived many years off of modding.

[Thony]

Chase down the people who improve your game for free and do what you should have done... *CLAP CLAP*

[Photonic]

Modding helps sell the game. I don't see why they feel their profit margins are being damaged by this. If anything, they should be benefiting.

Wankers.

Because they want to profit from shark cards

[That Norwegian Guy]

Feeling good about being in the 1% who didn't buy this game. Rockstar is a piece of shit and so is their publisher.