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GTA V Flooded With Negative Reviews On Steam After OpenIV Modding Tool Shuts Down (kotaku.com)

OpenIV, a popular modding tool used by tons of GTA V fans, is shutting down. After nearly 10 years of operation, the creators claim they have received a cease and desist from Take-Two Interactive -- the publisher of Grand Theft Auto. The news has shocked the PC Grand Theft Auto community, who use OpenIV to add thousands of mods into GTA V. Many upset modders have retaliated by flooding GTA V with negative reviews on Steam. Kotaku reports: According to a post on the official OpenIV website, the alleged cease and desist came on June 5th 2017. The supposed problem, OpenIV's creators say, is that the program allows "third parties to defeat security features of its software and modify that software in violation Take-Two's rights." After discussing their options, the team behind the tool says they decided it was not worth their time to fight back. "Yes, we can go to court and yet again prove that modding is fair use and our actions are legal," creator GooD-NTS wrote. "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."

21 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Kerbal Space Program by spiritplumber · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Take Two just bought Kerbal Space Program. Are they going to try to put a stop to KSP modding? Would Take Two even survive that?

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
    1. Re:Kerbal Space Program by pellik · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They will survive, but KSP may not.

    2. Re:Kerbal Space Program by asavage · · Score: 2

      KSP is already getting a ton of negative reviews on steam because of this. Lots of players are backing up the game files so they can keep running the current version in case a new version blocks mods.

    3. Re:Kerbal Space Program by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      We could crowdfund it. How much does SpaceX charge for an ICBM trajectory, say a 5 ton tank of hydrazine, right in the CEO's office?

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Kerbal Space Program by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      We could crowdfund it. How much does SpaceX charge for an ICBM trajectory, say a 5 ton tank of hydrazine, right in the CEO's office?

      Proof that video games lead to violent fantasies - Exhibit A

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Kerbal Space Program by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's the snag with Steam, they moved to a model where you can't easily block updates. It used to be you told it when you wanted to update, but now your choices are limited to "update immediately when a new version is available" and "update before playing". Yes, you can go around this with some planning by using offline mode but it's a bit of a hassle. So much for all the Valve fans defending tooth and nail their DRM.

  2. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fuck you, Zelnick. The GTA community will accept nothing less than your resignation and the firing of the asshats in the company who dreamed up this fuckwaddery to justify their unnecessary jobs.

    >in violation Take-Two's rights

    Oh boo hoo hoo cry me a river. You have been as profitable as a pure golden turd and it is the fans and modders who made that possible. Fuck them over and they will desert you.

    1. Re:Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick by Razed+By+TV · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh boo hoo hoo cry me a river. You have been as profitable as a pure golden turd and it is the fans and modders who made that possible.

      For anyone not experienced in gaming, modding can turn a good game into a great game, and a great game into a timeless game.

      It's sort of like open source software. Community members put in time and effort to create custom content, and everyone benefits from it (including the publisher, who now has an awesome game on their hands with sales through the roof.)
      Often, modifications go above and beyond content like extended campaigns or additional characters - engine hacks and patches are often necessary to incorporate new content and functionality that simply did not exist previously.

    2. Re:Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick by eaglesrule · · Score: 2

      Indeed. It brings to mind the original, vanilla version of Skyrim compared to the incredible breadth of mods that transformed the game into a beautifully realistic fantasy sandbox. If there was a reason why the game won Valve's Test of Time gaming award, it has to be because of the immense modding community surrounding the game.

    3. Re:Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      I know I won't be buying anymore Take A Deuce games (already had all the GTAs but V and was planning on getting it during the big Steam Summer Sale) because of how big a difference in game quality and length there is between modded and unmodded games.

      Take one of my favorite games Freelancer as an example...if you simply play that game vanilla? Then you'll probably get 5-8 hours of gameplay and it'll be linear as can be, but then you start adding the mods and....wow, just wow. Suddenly you have dozens of populated solar systems and factions and alliances and a large MP community. You can actually ROLEPLAY in the modded FL, you can be a miner or a smuggler, a pirate or a bounty hunter, having to watch which territory you are entering in case you are allied with the wrong faction, it turns what was just a straight space action game into much more of an RPG and all that content, dozens of hours worth and still growing? 100% free.

      So I won't have games from a company that is modding hostile, off is the direction Take a Deuce can fuck.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  3. Got my Steam refund in.... by Zurkeyon3733 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    JUST in the nick of time! Allowing modding, and then pulling it years later... Equates to me never buying your titles again. Enjoy those lost dollars, because that is all you "Won" today Take-Two, Less profits :-P

    1. Re:Got my Steam refund in.... by Zurkeyon3733 · · Score: 2

      How many Non-Assholes have you ever met online? The world is chock full of them. They are called "Humans" :-P

  4. Crazy thought process by Baron_Yam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "We have a game here that customers really enjoy adding their own content to, at their own time and expense, which results in the game remaining entertaining longer and increases purchases... we've let that go for years because it benefits us. So what the hell, let's shut it down, reduce the value of our product, and piss off our customer base. It's a bold plan, let's see how it plays out!"

    They want to protect their DLC which apparently makes more than the game itself... but their DLC is already making money. Shutting down 3rd party content isn't going to result in a boost to that income stream, and since they turn out new content at a pathetically slow pace, it's actually likely to go down as players get bored and move on to something else.

    1. Re:Crazy thought process by Cipheron · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > it's actually likely to go down as players get bored and move on to something else.

      You're right, but you're not factoring in GTA VI into that. They want to stomp the modding community before they start hyping what's new in GTA VI, otherwise those features will be reverse-engineered.

    2. Re:Crazy thought process by dissy · · Score: 2

      You're right, but you're not factoring in GTA VI into that.

      That's not quite accurate. I've factored GTA 6 into things, and will not be purchasing it.

      Going by the responses on steam, twitter, youtube, etc., there seems to be a couple million others who have factored in GTA 6 similarly as well...

      The vast majority of us that use single player mods were already going to buy, if not pre-purchase, GTA 6 as a simple matter of course.
      Why would passionate fans of the series, demonstrated by our continued use of the game long after the mainstream got bored with it, not have purchased the next game in the series?
      Of course we would. And once the mainstream got bored with it, we would have kept it alive with mods long past that point too, likely well into the time GTA 7 is announced two hardware generations from now.

      But now that our passion for the game is being treated like some criminal act, why bother spending our time, energy, and creativity in making the game better if in the end all we are going to get for it is the hatred of their publisher and possibly a lawsuit?

      It seems to me if anyone hasn't factored GTA 6 into account, it was take two.
      I hope the lower revenue stream is worth it for them *sarcasm*

      But in the end it's OK, fallout and the elder scrolls won't sue us for our love.
      Sounds like a good of a time as any to start that "never leave sanctuary challenge" I've been meaning to try with the latest batch of settlement expansion mods available.

    3. Re:Crazy thought process by Vektuz · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately no. The site/app they went after actually restricts multiplayer modding and is single-player focused specifically.

  5. This is *all* about GTA VI by Cipheron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They recently displayed a GTA VI demo at E3. Up until now, modders were great for sales and retention. But now they have a sequel and they have to hype how much better the sequel is going to be than the last one.

    Think about it this way: any new feature announced for GTA VI will see GTA V modders seeing if they can't just mod that into GTA V. Which would take a dump on their marketing. GTA V is the old stuff, GTA VI is where their profit is. Modding isn't for your benefit, it's because it extends the lifetime, community and sales of the product. But now, they don't want that. They want to create a clear distinction by which GTA VI is "better" than GTA V. How better to do that than crushing the mod scene?

    1. Re:This is *all* about GTA VI by Razed+By+TV · · Score: 2

      They want to create a clear distinction by which GTA VI is "better" than GTA V. How better to do that than crushing the mod scene?

      By *gasp* making a better game.
      I guess maybe you can only rehash the same idea before you achieve perfection.

      Shadowrun, while probably not nearly as popular as GTA, is a game with a good modding community. The long story short is that somehow, copies of the game still sell, despite the prevalence of modders.

    2. Re:This is *all* about GTA VI by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2

      Wait...they put GTA in vi? Take that, emacs!

    3. Re:This is *all* about GTA VI by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Is GTA VI just GTA V with the ability to tweak what your avatars look like, or with some minor additional subgames, or with the ability to flip a switch and have infinite lives?

      Because if it is, sure, the modding community is the competition. But if it is, nobody's going to spend more than $5 on it.

      If it isn't, if it's more or less a whole new game, as distinct from GTA V as GTA V is from GTA IV, then there's no effing way the modding community is "competition".

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  6. Re:Kerbal Space Program: Multiplayer. by retchdog · · Score: 2

    no problem! they're going to license the multiplayer from No Man's Sky which deals with this issue.

    --
    "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky