OpenIV is one of the most popular modding tools for GTA V, but after receiving a cease and desist from Take-Two Interactive, the creators are taking their service down. The PC Grand Theft Auto V community has used OpenIV for nearly ten years to add thousands of mods and explore the game in creative new ways, from hunting down cut content to creating machinima videos to adding new weapons, vehicles and more.
In a forum post , the OpenIV lead developer wrote: “Yes, we can go to court and yet again prove that modding is fair use and our actions are legal. 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.”
Fan reaction has been immediate and furious. Players have taken to Steam in droves to express their displeasure, with recent user reviews at “Overwhelmingly Negative” and only 19% of reviews in the last 30 days rated as positive. Players with hundreds of hours logged slammed Take-Two’s treatment of OpenIV and by extension the vibrant PC modding community devoted to GTA V.
“This is what happens when you refuse to listen to your fans and let the money get to you,” writes one reviewer. Another writes, “I cannot recommend any game that attacks and spits on it's community like Take-Two has with this recent assault on mods.”
Recently, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated, "We are convinced that we are probably from an industry view undermonetising on a per-user basis.There is wood to chop because I think we can do more, and we can do more without interfering with our strategy of being the most creative and our ethical approach, which is delighting consumers.”
While Zelnick added, “We're not going to grab the last nickel," players clearly don’t see Take-Two’s actions as benign. Notably, GTA Online was a big contributor to “recurrent consumer spending revenue” (microtransactions). OpenIV doesn’t even permit you to access GTA Online while any OpenIV mod is installed, so if driving further microtransactions was part of Take Two’s goal in banning OpenIV, it seems highly misguided.
A change.org petition has over 25,000 signatures as of press time. The petition states in part:
“The closing of OpenIV leaves 10,000s of people without access to be able to mod their games, and leaves 10,000s of people without the ability to continue their hobbies. All modding used by OpenIV is for singleplayer use only to make the game more enjoyable, the software OpenIV was never used to mod multiplayer or Grand Theft Auto Online so it does not harm anyone.”
The top commenter’s reason for signing reads: “I am signing this petition due to the absolute passion for modding, this an absolute disgrace from Take Two Interactive to shut down such an amazing and passionate community this is absurd, I am signing this petition to show my love for the modding community out there, and all of the passionate modders who spent countless hours, even thousands of hours to help out this community.”
Many other replies are in the same vein, promising boycotts, chastising TakeTwo for perceived greediness and stating their appreciation for the mod community’s talent, passion and creativity. Rockstar sent PC Gamer a statement:
"Take-Two's actions were not specifically targeting single player mods. Unfortunately OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody. We are working to figure out how we can continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players."
Take-Two has declined additional comment.
Are you a GTA V fan? Do you play with mods on PC? Feel free to talk about Take-Two’s decision to ban OpenIV and its repercussions in our comment box below.
