A couple of days ago, Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, slapped one of the most popular Grand Theft Auto modding tool, OpenIV, with a cease-and-desist order. The tool has been in use for over a decade and is utilized in offline versions of various Rockstar games, including Max Payne, GTA IV, and GTA V.
Although Rockstar stated that it was enforcing the cease-and-desist order because OpenIV "enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody", it is quite interesting to note that the tool cannot be used online. As a result, Take-Two Interactive's move has received a lot of backlash from gamers all over the world, as it essentially goes against the spirit of modding. Enraged gamers have taken to the GTA V store listing on Steam to voice their anger in a unified manner.
As spotted by PC Gamer, GTA V's recent ratings on Steam have fallen from "Overwhelmingly Positive" a few days ago, to "Overwhelmingly Negative" right now. At the time of writing, only 13% of the 39,936 reviews offered in the last 30 days have been positive. Similarly, the overall all-time rating for the extremely popular game has become "Mixed" due to Take-Two's controversial move as well.
Nearly all the reviews on Steam cite the same issue, complaining of Take-Two's policies to modding, claiming the tactic to be a part of a cash-grabbing strategy. Several users have posted links to a Change.org petition, pressurizing Take-Two to allow the distribution and use of the modding tool. The petition has currently garnered over 50,000 signatures.
This is not the first time that Take-Two Interactive has taken an initiative against modding tools. Back in April, the company put an end to a mod that aimed to bring Red Dead Redemption's map to GTA V. It'll be interesting to see how the firm responds this time.
Source: PC Gamer
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