Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, has sent a DMCA takedown to the modder responsible for making Grand Theft Auto 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the entire Mafia trilogy playable in VR.
As modder Luke Ross explained on Patreon (opens in new tab)“They’re demanding that I remove all of their copyrighted works from my Patreon page.” Which came as a surprise, since, as he says, “none of my customizations are built with software from Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, and the customizations are not intended to replace their games, nor are they a way of taking Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Two Interactive Software, Inc. Proprietary IP or assets of Two Interactive Software, Inc.”
At this point you can use the . to download REAL VR mod for GTA5 from Github (opens in new tab)although Luke’s mods for the Mafia trilogy and Red Dead Redemption 2 are still in development and can only be obtained by subscribing to his Patreon (opens in new tab)† Luke recently told the edge (opens in new tab) that he makes over $20,000 a month from his Patreon backers, who get access to prototype builds of his VR mods for not only Rockstar games, but Horizon Zero Dawn, Dark Souls: Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring†
The DMCA notice doesn’t seem to have anything to do with whether Luke makes a profit from his mods, but simply demands the removal of copyrighted works rather than demonetizing them. As Luke puts it, “this has been filed as a copyright issue and not a licensing issue, so the motivation for the request does not appear to be related to the fact that money is involved.”
In an update to the original post, Luke explained that he is trying to discuss matters directly with Take-Two, saying, “Patreon has offered to try and set up a direct channel. I am grateful for that and I hope that the effort will succeed and lead to a positive resolution, as I firmly believe that what we are doing cannot hurt Take-Two’s profits in any way.”
This is far from the first time Take-Two has used DMCA notifications to take GTA mods offline, naturally. And just as previous takedowns fueled rumors of the GTA Trilogy remasters, this could suggest Rockstar is working on its own VR re-releases of these games. People seemed to enjoy LA Noire: The VR Case Filesand a VR version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was announced for the Meta Quest 2 in 2021, although we haven’t heard anything about it since.
By the way, Luke’s VR Mod for No One Lives Forever 2 (opens in new tab) is available for download without subscribing to Patreon.