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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."
"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.
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.