OpenIV shutting down - "The day, when GTA modding was declared illegal"

[Hux]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if all of you are aware, but the OpenIV modding tool for GTA is shutting down and isn't being distributed anymore. This is a very sad day for many PC gamers who play the GTA franchise and for me, because of the imported cars I use.

Take-Two have enforced the letter and this is nothing to do with Rockstar Games, just their parent company Take-Two. Rockstar Games were pretty acceptable with modding single-player.

Anyway, here's the quote from their website.

"We feared that this day would come… And now it’s here.
The day, when GTA modding was declared illegal.

GTA modding had long and glorious history.
Since GTA III, people have created lots of different mods: from simple texture replacements to impressive full conversions.

And the modding always was a “gray zone” — a battlefield between lawyers and PR…

For almost ten years of OpenIV development, we had tried to play as nice as possible and even more:

• Strictly following of Civil Code of Russia (only reverse engineering for interoperability).
• Only clean-room reverse engineering.
• No distribution of original data and code.
• And absolutely no messing with Online…

On June 5th, 2017, we had received an official Cease-and-Desist letter.
It clearly says, that with OpenIV we “allow third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two’s rights“.
Yes, this letter is illiterate both technically and grammatically (really, they don’t even bothered with proof-reading the text).
Yes, we can go to court and yet again prove that modding is fair use and our actions are legal.
Yes, we could. But we decided not to.

Going to court will take at least few months of our time and huge amount of efforts, and, at best, we’ll get absolutely nothing.
Spending time just to restore status quo is really unproductive, and all the money in the world can’t compensate the loss of time.

So, we decided to agree with their claims and we’re stopping distribution of OpenIV.

It was a hard decision, but when any modding activity has been declared illegal, we can’t see any possibilities to continue this process,
unless top management of Take-Two company makes an official statement about modding, which can be used in court.

With many thanks for all modding community for all your fantastic creations,
OpenIV team.

So long, and thanks for all the fish."

http://openiv.com/?_sm_byp=iVV35HN0DPqV5rqs

 

[Koyomi Araragi]

I don't know why Take-Two would choose to go after this software after so many years, especially if Rockstar doesn't have a problem with it.

 

[Gladdy]

I don't play GTA V on the computer so this doesn't really affect me but I did watch some GTA V streams on Twitch.tv. Excuse my ignorance but does that mean that all these RP servers are getting completely shut down or what? if so, damn... that's pretty bad.

I often heard people saying that this would happen sooner or later though. I hope it doesn't cause too many problems for the GTA V mods users.

 

[Hux]

I don't play GTA V on the computer so this doesn't really affect me but I did watch some GTA V streams on Twitch.tv. Excuse my ignorance but does that mean that all these RP servers are getting completely shut down or what? if so, damn... that's pretty bad.

I often heard people saying that this would happen sooner or later though. I hope it doesn't cause too many problems for the GTA V mods users.

I think it depends on the server and if they are using RP mods on the server. I play GTA V on PC fairly often and I use OpenIV to import custom cars so this is going to be a big pain for me, and a lot of other players.

Still sucks either way

 

[Jordan]

Ya, I saw this yesterday. So stupid!

Going to piss off so many people!

 

[Disco Turtle]

Rockstar is claiming it's allowing for malicious mods and interference of GTA Online.

"“Take-Two’s actions were not specifically targeting single player mods. Unfortunately, OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody. We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players.”


Mfw GTA Online was easy as shit for hackers to destroy. For the longest time (And probably still) people could change anything with Cheat Engine. It''s not going to stop cheating on GTA Online. (Assuming that's their main reason to shut down the program)

 

[Makef0rt]

Rockstar is claiming it's allowing for malicious mods and interference of GTA Online.

"“Take-Two’s actions were not specifically targeting single player mods. Unfortunately, OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody. We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players.”


Mfw GTA Online was easy as shit for hackers to destroy. For the longest time (And probably still) people could change anything with Cheat Engine. It''s not going to stop cheating on GTA Online. (Assuming that's their main reason to shut down the program)

Yeah, exactly. If this was the reason why they decided to shut it down, they must have no brains. Honestly, I don't think this will stop modding though. There will always be somebody brave enough to step up and start something new. OpenIV did a smart move there, they could have gone to the court, but if it didn't work out for them, they would be in a bad situation. Although, I really have no idea why RS did not react differently.

Keep in mind there might always be some smart fellas who have been storing all of the mods in his database. You might see it pop up somewhere one day, every mod that ever existed. SP modding is and should never be considered illegal. As for security flaws, it is not modders who should be blamed. They just found the hole in the security. They should actually be thanked for that

 

[Denis_P]

Bethesda: Check it out bro, I bet I can piss people off to the maximum by pushing paid mods again.

Take Two: Hold my beer, bro.

Seriously, this was the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to purchasing Take Two's video games. I was already quite underwhelmed with Grand Theft Auto V but I actually sank a decent amount of hours into it simply thanks to mods. And now they're taking away the one reason I actually still played the game? Yeah, no. Unless this gets retracted I'm not buying GTA VI, not buying RDR2, no chance. I'm tired of these companies disrespecting the people that keep them alive.

 

[Jordan]

Looks like they are allowing OpenIV to reopen.

I guess all those negative reviews on all the GTA titles really hit the sweet spot eh?

 

[OursIsTheFury]

Yup, and the fan backlash was noticeable too. 10% approval rating on Steam and users telling people considering to get the game to not do it, as the modding fiasco really hit a sensitive spot on the gamers and fans of the franchise. From this to Bethesda and other companies trying to get a percentage and monetize mods made by the community, it's time for the players to actually speak up to stop the madness that's happening with today's games.

 

[jelleh]

It's a shame. People just wanted to have a bit more fun. Enforcing it online, I get, but singleplayer? Get lost.

 

[MLF]

Yup, and the fan backlash was noticeable too. 10% approval rating on Steam and users telling people considering to get the game to not do it, as the modding fiasco really hit a sensitive spot on the gamers and fans of the franchise. From this to Bethesda and other companies trying to get a percentage and monetize mods made by the community, it's time for the players to actually speak up to stop the madness that's happening with today's games.

Moral of the story here is do not bite the hand that feeds you. Company didn't care about the PR backlash but with RDR2 and other titles coming down the pike, they were probably scared about future earnings potential.

 

[WarVet]

This whole fight is very similar to the piracy struggle. The whole "jailbreak" for PS3 issue back in the day. While I don't agree with censorship, all parties have their points. It's really not worth fighting for anyway. Perhaps we should just move on to modding new games.

 

[Makef0rt]

This whole fight is very similar to the piracy struggle. The whole "jailbreak" for PS3 issue back in the day. While I don't agree with censorship, all parties have their points. It's really not worth fighting for anyway. Perhaps we should just move on to modding new games.

Naah, I wouldn't say that would be the best thing. Gaming companies are being too greedy and are making half baked products lately. And once they start taking out the stuff people enjoy, it really is time to the whole gaming community to wake up and start their march. By allowing them to do however they please, you can expect more and more of similar BS to happen with many other titles.

 

[Ash]

It is a shame really because the main reason why a lot of people got Grand Theft Auto V on PC was because of the ability to mod different things into the game. Rockstar always add things to their games that make it amazing and interesting but there are some absolutely great modifications out there that add things that even Rockstar did not think of adding, like for example police missions. I'm on PS4 and I really wish they added police missions (like the ones in GTA IV). But I unfortunately can't mod on PS4 so I have to make do with pretending to be a policeman . The main reason I think why they did this was because of all the mods in the multiplayer mode. That affected their Sharkcard sales so they had to do something

 

[Makef0rt]

It is a shame really because the main reason why a lot of people got Grand Theft Auto V on PC was because of the ability to mod different things into the game. Rockstar always add things to their games that make it amazing and interesting but there are some absolutely great modifications out there that add things that even Rockstar did not think of adding, like for example police missions. I'm on PS4 and I really wish they added police missions (like the ones in GTA IV). But I unfortunately can't mod on PS4 so I have to make do with pretending to be a policeman . The main reason I think why they did this was because of all the mods in the multiplayer mode. That affected their Sharkcard sales so they had to do something

Naah, I don't think that was the reason. I don't know if the prices have changed since the last time I have played, but the cards were too damn expensive IMO considering how much most of the content in the game costs. People who wanted to stay clean would either grind their way or buy them. I didn't care at start when I found out nobody was getting banned so I started by "accepting" small amounts and later on I would just stand still when somebody started dropping money and buy everything I could. Funny thing is, before they actually started banning people, I stopped playing the game. Most of my friends got their first ban, so I went to check it out some time later and I had no ban record lol. Well, technically, I didn't hack. I was given the tools by the hackers haha

What I really enjoyed the most was getting that alien gun or whatever the hell it was. There were a lot of bullies who used to fly in planes and choppers and for starters it was terrible. But with the alien gun it was amazingly fun to shoot them down from the other side of the city and they would just be like huh, what happened lol

 

[jahanzeb ali qureshi]

The only benefit to playing GTA V on PC was to play your favorite mod. They should more options into it rather than disabling the available options. A lot of people would love to choose PS4 mod. It does not make any sense to make any changes like this in a game.