Take Two Bows Down To Gamers, Brings Back GTA Modding

In yet another instance of giant companies being forced to their knee by the sheer outrage of its customers, Take Two brings back modding to Grand Theft Auto. This particular kerfuffle started because the publisher sent a cease and desist letter to the creators of a tool that is essential to making mods work. The backlash it incurred was significant enough for the company to backpedal hard.

PC gaming and mods come hand in hand, this is something that the community has accepted in recent years. As a result, when the publisher of GTA decided to interfere with that setup, gamers absolutely bombed it with criticisms. GTA V’s Steam page was immediately dropped to Overwhelmingly Negative territory, with users expressing outrage over Take Two’s ill-advised approach to its games.

Fortunately, Rockstar Games did not share the same level of disdain that its publisher did when it came to mods, which is why both entities had a discussion about the issue. This resulted in a new update, wherein the modding practice can continue for single-player modes but not for online multiplayer, Polygon reports.

It’s worth noting that the reason for the modding ban originated from the trend of malicious activities in GTA V’s online community. Some players have been employing tools that allowed them to skew the game in their favor, thus inconveniencing others who stuck to the rules.

Many of those who were outraged by the ban noted that they understood the concern and shared it as well. However, the problem is centered on Take Two targeting OpenIV, which is primarily a single-player resource. It does not affect online multiplayer.

On the other hand, this does not mean that modders are completely in the clear, Destructoid notes. In Rockstar’s statement, the studio said that its publisher would not be taking legal action against mods that “respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of third parties”. If creators aren’t careful about the assets and IPs that they used, they could still get slapped with a lawsuit.