The Russian developers of OpenIV, a tool used to modify the GTA V game’s single player experience, announced today on their website in a blog post that Take-Two Interactive, owners of GTA developer Rockstar games forced them to shut down their tool as well as their Liberty City in GTA V map mod . They have already redirected the download links to the post and the software is unavailable on their website. According to the development team, it all started with an email form Take-Two Interactive’s legal team in the USA ordering them to cease development of both OpenIV and the Liberty City in GTA V Map mod on may 19th, 2017. After an inquiry by the developers of OpenIV for more details on the order they received a Cease-and-Desist order in both letter and email form accusing them of breaking Russian software reverse-engineering laws. The team stated they would comply and not pursue the matter any further, meaning they won’t fight it in case.

Take 2 going into a new era of banning mods?

This means Take-Two Interactive has clearly stated their stance on game modding, making it seem prohibited. Rockstar games themselves had featured mods using this tool in the past, making it seem like the Take-Two legal team took this matter into their own hands. The backlash has been violent with the amount of negative steam reviews rising sharply with recent reviews being “mostly negative”. The backlash form this move with undoubtedly be enormous and resonate throughout the entire gaming community. Early on with the game’s initial release there had been a controversy for the fact that people were getting banned for playing online with singleplayer mods installed. That time however Rockstar had clearly stated they tolerated singleplayer modding. This seems to now be a move taken by Take-Two Interactive who recently purchased Kerbal Space Program, a game with a big modding community. However this move might be to protect GTA: Online, the big moneymaker making almost $2 billion since launch, and trying to get less people on the singleplayer with mods and more online, buying shark cards to avoid the long grind.