The People vs Take-Two: OpenIV mod shut down

[Kirsty]

It's been a tumultuous 24 hours for the GTA community.

 

It all began on Wednesday with the lead developer of veteran modding tool and file explorer OpenIV, and the previously upcoming Liberty City V map mod, announcing that the projects will be taken down due to a Cease and Desist order from Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games parent company and publisher. It came at the shock of many and has so far created an uproar of anger and sadness amongst the community. Find below some history of what we know to explain what has happened.

 

First and foremost let us highlight its importance to us; modding has always been at the heart of our community since the series conception; we have dedicated forums with thousands of topics and the humble GTAGarage is responsible for over 124 million downloads alone, and it doesn't stop here. There's a plethora of mod hosting websites that fans use to download and share a variety of mods, all with the intention of improving, customising or creating fun in singleplayer. The surge of YouTube has only further thrown modding into the spotlight, with many YouTubers using tools to showcase crazy mods to their subscribers or create wonderful machinima movies with such creativity they're pretty much professional storytellers.

 

Rockstar themselves have always been supportive of modding, even showcasing the best they've seen on the Newswire, and in the very early days there's examples of them using modding tools during development.

 

So what has changed?

 

There is a dark side of modding that affects the multiplayer of GTA, something that shouldn't even be associated with the word modding, but has sadly been coupled with it by its main abusers: hackers and cheaters. Unlimited health, invisibility and teleportation were some examples of the common trickery experienced in the GTA IV multiplayer days, but today in GTA Online there are exploits through mods that are so damaging to the function and economy of the game that it has rendered it useless for many players: the draining of cash, the dropping of unimaginable amounts of money, the wiping of vehicles, the manipulation of rank and other technical abuse such as freezing games, altering movements and kicking players. The most recent outburst of this was reported in April and has been ongoing since, with updates only stopping them in their tracks for a short time before they roll out again.

 

So what has this got to do with OpenIV?

 

Well, we're not entirely sure. Since the news about the shut down of the tool has hit many gaming news sites, the reputable PC Gamer ran an article about it when the news first broke and they managed to reach out to Rockstar themselves for a comment. They have since responded with the following:

 

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.

Though fairly vague in detail, it states that singleplayer mods weren't the target of their Cease and Desist order, but that OpenIV as a tool allows some of the exploits used by hackers and cheaters in GTA Online as mentioned up above.

 

This statement has, unfortunately, left the community even more confused about the situation and the future of modding. The developers of OpenIV, and many users of the tool, have been categorically expressing that it has never been and cannot be used for GTA Online. Its sole function for the decade it has been in use, according to members commenting, is for the modding of singleplayer and the exploration of game files. It's even said that if you mod GTAV with OpenIV, you can't enter GTA Online at all.

 

It's entirely possible through their own testing that Rockstar have found examples of players using such tools to exploit the game in some way or another that the rest of the community isn't aware of. In order to battle hackers and cheaters, we're assuming they've probably tested the ways in which it's done to see for themselves how GTA Online can be abused, and if they have found something that is actively happening in this abhorrent side of the community, it could explain why they've clearly mentioned it in their statement to PC Gamer that OpenIV is at fault. Since we're not able to question Rockstar about this ourselves, and it might not be likely they will make anymore statements on it, we can accept there's some element of truth to our assumptions.

 

So could there be another reason if Rockstar support modding? What is this about the leaking culture?

 

Earlier on we tweeted about the idea that leaking and sharing of files could another big cause behind the Cease and Desist order, not necessarily the practice of modding itself. This came about after member @Ash_735, a modder who has close connections to the media, claimed to have seen the Cease and Desist document that was served to the OpenIV team and summarised the orders it gave:

 

 

As stated, they no longer support mods that allow fans to "look inside" game files or "extract" them for use. There's also a mention of loading "additional" content into games and "transferring" assets between games being disallowed, which explains why the RDRV and LCV map mods were taken down. If we're interpreting Ash's post correctly, this leads us to a couple of potential reasons that OpenIV could be at fault for:

 

1) "Leakers" who have made a name for themselves by looking at unreleased items in the game files such as vehicles from major GTA Online updates and showcasing them for all to see

2) Modding GTA Online game files so that they are accessible in singleplayer is not compatible with their business model due to the microtransaction econcomy

3) Tin foil hat time: Modding is no longer compatible with their business model because paid mods, like Bethesda's Creation Club, or official modding APIs could be a thing of the future

 

Our bets are on 1) on this occasion.

 

The community response

 

As stated up above, a mixture of anger and sadness was the first reaction to this breaking story about OpenIV's fate. So far, the community has responded in the only way it feels it can; with protest. Fans have been posting on these forums, on Reddit, on NeoGAF and across many gaming news sites in rejection of the decision. A petition has also been created to "Save OpenIV". While petitions and posts of complaints may not do much, it shows the overwhelming support the modding community has. The petition currently sits at over 16,000 signatures and it is still rising.

 

Not satisfied with providing an e-signature, people have also taken to Steam, the PC gaming platform, and begun to leave negative reviews for the game. At the time of this post, around 15,000 people have now left a negative review over the last few days, moving its category to "Mostly Negative". We don't want to encourage this, but the weight of this decision is evident.

 

Several YouTubers, some personally affected by the decision due to the impact it will have on their content, have also filmed supportive videos - BloodLust180, GTA Wise Guy, NerdCubed, Jim Sterling

 

 

So where do we go from here?

 

There's not a whole lot we can do right now other than speculate about the fate of modding and what this means for every fan in the community that uses mods for good or positive reasons, as well as Rockstar's stance on modding in the future. There are some contradictions between Rockstar's statement and the Cease and Desist order details, but with everything so vague it's hard to say; this surely doesn't mean that modding is now "illegal" as many gaming news sites have headlined. Rockstar, in their statement, say they are working on making sure people can continue to have creative freedom in singleplayer, so we can only assume they still support modding and the attack here is on cheaters and hackers, but there are still many questions about what action is being taken in regards to this; perhaps this is how it has to be until they've successfully shut them down.

 

If leaking content is also a significant issue here and Rockstar wants to eradicate this to future proof upcoming games like Red Dead Redemption 2, then it appears that OpenIV and the modding community has become the innocent victim amongst a wider community that uses these kinds of tools only for selfish reasons, and Rockstar are within their rights to shut down anything that enables this to happen as unfortunate as this sounds. Further statements from Rockstar or Take-Two would help our understanding, but it's possible that this will not happen and we may have to wait it out and see if other popular mods such as ScriptHook are affected down the line.

 

For now we can only pledge our support to the developers of OpenIV, fellow modders and creators from the community. We are against cheaters, the few who ruin it for the many.

 

Feel free to show your own support by sharing your thoughts about what modding means to you and our community, make a comment in the OpenIV topic to keep it relevant, sign the petition if you choose, and watch and share the videos of your favourite creators from around the community in support of their work.

[boppa_]

Very eloquently put

[NoobDude-]

Trimmed version of 60+ pages of comments on the other thread. Well done.

[Stryfaar]

Very well said, Kirsty. I agree completely. The only things we can hope for right now:

• Take-Two realising the bad business decision they pulled off and quickly reverses their decision.
• OpenIV team decides to go to court and defend. We have enough evidence to achieve justice. (But then, in reality, money is the root of all evil)
• R* implements official mod support by having an official mod tool similar to OpenIV, or implementing Steam Workshop on the game. I believe this can be supported by their recent statement released to PC Gamer:

• "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."

R* leaves Take-Two Interactive.

I guess the V modding community will never get this hotdog texture mod with spec maps to ever get released.
​

Released

Edited July 29, 2017 by Stryfaar

[Fireboyd78]

Rockstar themselves have always been supportive of modding, even showcasing the best they've seen on the Newswire, and in the very early days there's examples of them using modding tools during development.

Could you provide an example of this? Just curious to see what you meant by that.

[Kirsty]

Could you provide an example of this? Just curious to see what you meant by that.

Some posts taken from the OpenIV announcement topic, first I've learned of it too. I'll add a link to the OP to clarify.

 

I can't believe no one else has mentioned this, but this is the most hypocritical move ever from Take Two Interactive, as GTA London 1969 and GTAL61 were built using GTA Cars, the GTA 1 equivalent of Open IV! They even thanked the mod authors in the credits along side Take 2 Interactive software! youtube video

Also worth noting - carcols.dat from GTA VC (mentioned earlier but without a conrete file name):

 

 

# Generated By MultiEdit V1.3 On 14/09/2002 22:46:02 [http://icey.gouranga.com]

Plus obviously mobile games but these barely count since it's outsourced work.

 

[D T]

Could you provide an example of this? Just curious to see what you meant by that.

They used iCEnhancer for GTA V in-game movies. iCE was made possible using modding tools, like OpenIV.

 

 

What you're looking at is the red sky bug. A common graphical error that occurs when installing iCEnhancer on later versions of GTA IV. Rockstar couldn't even be bothered to downgrade their copy of GTA IV to fix that error when filming these scenes.

[K^2]

So from experience with OpenIV (including some internals), ScriptHook, and the kind of tools you'd actually use to crack a game, the claims that R* is making about OpenIV connection to on-line hacking are total bull.

 

This was an action taken by clueless managers who have no f*cking idea how modding or hacking works. And they've made false claims about it. OpenIV has not contributed to the on-line hacking. Just the opposite.

 

Back in the days of San Andreas modding, making a comprehensive mod required a lot of know-how and hours spent on IRC channels. Until a few days ago, making GTAV mods was comparatively easy. The underground community for GTA mods has shrunk considerably thanks to the availability of OpenIV.

 

This is about to be reversed. Modders who still want to make modifications for GTAV are going to flood right back into the same IRC channels and message boards, fueling new growth of underground modding community. Among the notable fallout, we will see faster development of hacks designed to bypass any security designed to prevent on-line cheating. Take-Two just shot themselves in the foot big time.

 

Unfortunately, as usual in such cases, the entire community is going to suffer. Everyone except for cheaters, of course, who will be thrilled.

[unbid]

As stated, they no longer support mods that allow fans to "look inside" game files or "extract" them for use. This leads us to a couple of potential reasons that OpenIV could be at fault for:

 

1) "Leakers" who have made a name for themselves by looking at unreleased items in the game files such as vehicles from major GTA Online updates and showcasing them for all to see

 

Our bets are on 1) on this occasion.

I remembered when I did an interview with Yan for GTAForums Weekly that I asked him on R* response towards leakers of future GTA Online content. This was his response:

 

 

U: Do you think R* will give you any warnings for leaking the next game update content?

Y: Rockstar never said anything about my leaks, and I made it clear to them several times that if they ever get tired of them, they can simply send me an email or a Twitter DM to tell me to stop posting leaks or whatever they would want, and I would happily do what they say. Sure, I post leaks, but I'm still a big Rockstar fan and I still have a lot of respect for them, and even though leaks might seem disrespectful, if they don't say anything I just assume they're ok with that. And judging by what I heard, I actually believe they're ok with my leaks, probably because I'm not being an asshole (unlike someone else).

I need to clarify this with Yan if R* personally emailed him to stop leaking future contents. If they are, then that should be the main reason why T2 send C&D to OpenIV.

[Crystal3lf]

Couple of things I want to know are:

 

 

I got C&D letter from lawyers company (legal representative of Take Two in Russia), both in electronic and paper form, to my employer address. This C&D accuses me in Russian laws violations.

- Where is the proof of this letter.

 

- Why would a multi-billion dollar company send a letter with bad grammar in the first place.

 

- Why are other mods still allowed? No online cheats are going to have any problems getting back online, so why would they target a singleplayer only mod and not others?

 

- Why are GTA V RP/other online mods still up and running, mods that takes any profit from Rockstar away completely.

 

- "Unfortunately OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody."

 

How do we know OpenIV isn't hiding anything? It's not open source, so who knows whats in there that can mess with online. How do we know they are not hiding something, and instead of owning up to it they thought they could get the entire community to rally against T2/R* so they wouldn't feel bad about it.

 

 

The developers of OpenIV, and many users of the tool, have been categorically expressing that it has never been and cannot be used for GTA Online.

It has actually, I'm not sure what the use was for in Menyoo, but it was an option to have OpenIV installed alongside the online cheating mod.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Crystal3lf

[Sunrise Driver]

^^^^^^Questions are irrelevant now since C* made an official statement and thus confirmed they had sent the letter.

[livejoker]

Wow, I'm not even into modding and I know this is the end of an era. T2 are taking the full heat and Rockstar are playing the puppy eyes on the sidelines. Hopefully they're legitimately concerned about their player base and trying to smooth over any injury that T2, big bad boyfriend that they are, did to their fans. Or, they can be real sneaky and be in on the whole act. I just don't know what Rockstar is doing - are they helplessly trying to keep it together or are they using T2 as the messenger?

Personally? The Rockstar I grew up with is dead. It died when shark cards became a thing. Not the fact it was in-game currency, it was the fact they hinted at a living and breathing world with GTA:O but what we got was an overpriced in-game experience that only benefits the cheaters and the financially rich players willing to drop $100 on in-game money to afford a boat. That was the death of Rockstar for me. Now this? How many nails can you put in a coffin?

Edited June 16, 2017 by livejoker

[OysterBarron]

From reading their official statement they are basically saying that instead of actually working on ways to combat cheaters using the exploits all they've simply done is to ban openiv. Surely it's in there interest to work closely with openiv team in order to combat these exploits together!

[Microsoft Word]

This is such an illogical business move from a company like Take 2, especially where it contradicts one of the main purposes of releasing a game to an open platform where they will benefit financially from the appeal of the growing modding community. But no, that's not how they see it.

[Great Britain]

Respectfully bidding farewell to this series. The direction it is headed towards is an obvious one and there is no way in hell I would like to be a part of it anymore. If this is what is going to happen, I'll be happy to not even acknowledge the existence of this "franchise" from here on after. I made a post regarding the latest DLC and how disconnected I feel from that typical GTA vibe and I think it's safe to now say that atleast for me, GTA died after V. Money talks and we all see what it has to say as far as the future of this series is concerned.

[OPIVMOD]

The Protest is working, I've been watching their Stocks, it's falling hard and fast, they are losing money faster than they can get. It's time for Take2 to pull it's head out it's butt and listen or it's stock will disappear.

 

Investor Relations

NASDAQ GS | TTWO (Common Stock) $74.01 0.37 (0.50%)

High$74.73

Low$72.53

Volume2,760,858

Market Cap$7,684,968,599

06/15/17 4:00 p.m. ET

Data provided by Nasdaq. Minimum 15 minutes delayed.

 

http://ir.take2games.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=86428&p=irol-irhome

Edited June 16, 2017 by OPIVMOD

[Mister Pink]

Respectfully bidding farewell to this series. The direction it is headed towards is an obvious one and there is no way in hell I would like to be a part of it anymore. If this is what is going to happen, I'll be happy to not even acknowledge the existence of this "franchise" from here on after. I made a post regarding the latest DLC and how disconnected I feel from that typical GTA vibe and I think it's safe to now say that atleast for me, GTA died after V. Money talks and we all see what it has to say as far as the future of this series is concerned.

 

I've been feeling like this for some time. It started with abandonment of SP, Microtransactions and now this. I don't even mod but this seems to send a certain message. I think they're going in a direction that doesn't make me feel like a valued customer any more, despite spending hundreds on their products for many years.

[Damned_Hitman]

Respectfully bidding farewell to this series. The direction it is headed towards is an obvious one and there is no way in hell I would like to be a part of it anymore. If this is what is going to happen, I'll be happy to not even acknowledge the existence of this "franchise" from here on after. I made a post regarding the latest DLC and how disconnected I feel from that typical GTA vibe and I think it's safe to now say that atleast for me, GTA died after V. Money talks and we all see what it has to say as far as the future of this series is concerned.

 

I can imagine you're not alone in these feelings, and a lot of others like yourself are feeling their inner Rockstargames fanboyistic GTA love is dying quickly due to the vibe disappearing and greed.

 

*Edit, also meant to say, props to Kirsty for the well written summary, as someone who is more of a 'casual' gamer, PC modding isn't something I'm too aware about, so appreciated all that was written.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Damned_Hitman

[Lozano71]

The worst that threatens us is stagnation at this level. Anyway, the program can be used. What this all ends - we'll see. But I already decided that I will not buy GTA VI if they continue this policy.

[PJR_4015]

When you talk about leakers, do you mean people who reveal unreleased content that was already present in the game files, or people who reveal unreleased content gotten from download servers or sources inside R*? For instance dripfed vehicles including the upcoming the Cheetah Classic and Torero, but also previously released Christmas and Halloween updates, often already came packaged with bigger DLCs and were released later on. It would be naive from R* to think people won't show this content to people who don't have OpenIV. I can understand if R* wants to take measures against the other type of leaker since they actively have do more work to acquire the content instead of more or less getting it handed to them.

 

It's also foolish from T2 and R* to think people will accept to only mod the game without accessing the files. There is only so much you can do with scripts and by editing, adding and replacing stuff the game really starts to shine.

 

The thing that bothers me the most now is that the development of OpenIV has halted. There were still many important files waiting to be decrypted, but unless a miracle happens,we won't be seeing that anytime soon.

[twincessna340a]

I posted this to Rockstar's support page. Please like.

 

https://www.facebook.com/RockstarGamesOnlineSupportpage/posts_to_page/

[Kirsty]

The story has now reached the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40301450

 

If anyone sees any articles about this, please post them so we can see what they've suggested. There seems to be a lot of misinformation being spread about the use of singleplayer modding in general.

[Great Britain]

The story has now reached the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40301450

 

If anyone sees any articles about this, please post them so we can see what they've suggested. There seems to be a lot of misinformation being spread about the use of singleplayer modding in general.

 

I hope it gets even bigger and grabs more attention to make other developers realize how not to screw over their fans.

[vvmachete]

And despite all the modding ("good" and "bad"), GTA V is one of the most successful and profitable games in history...

[LennyH]

In the past, Rockstar was more community-based. If you remember most of Yeardley Diamond's videos were put on R*'s newswire and they even announced it on their newswire the time he passed away. Mods like MTA:SA had semi-support of R* themselves. The reason they had OIV team shut down was not that it allowed you to modify the original online experience because OopenIV doesn't support that thing anyways. I'm not sure of the true reason but the bust guesses I have are that R* is planning on officially supporting mods in some way or it was related to the Liberty City and RDR map ports in some way.

[Jimbatron]

Well written Kirsty (edited in, forgetting my manners initially).

 

Very much a novice modder here, but my 2 cents.

 

I've made my own IV Multiplayer mod. Nothing malicious - I've made a new Cops 'n Crooks set of getaway locations. The mod is in tight distribution with trusted friends, and the title of the server is hard coded so it's clear anyone is playing a modded game mode (before I get flamed). I have enough knowledge, if I'd have wished, to do things such as enable god mode for specific players and vehicles - but I chose not to.

 

Open IV couldn't be used to make this kind of mod. I haven't tried to edit any GTAO scripts, but at my best guess, it would be the same story. It's not impossible of course someone might have used Open IV in conjunction with other software I'm not aware of, but from my perspective the amount of experience you'd need to do that sort of thing, you'd be fully capable of starting from scratch anyway. At most I would say Open IV might be a CONVENIENT tool for cheaters much in the same way it is for all of us (working out what R* have changed with a patch for example), but I suspect it is neither necessary nor sufficient for the trouble makers.

 

Arguably that's speculation on my part, tempered with experience, but here's exhibit A for the defense: the most notorious and cancerous mod menu has released a new version AFTER Open IV was shut down and the gunrunning update came out. So clearly, shutting down Open IV has not stopped cheating. I'm fairly certain the mod menus causing the problems are all written in languages like C. It might have been more plausible if they'd gone after the Script Hook as we know at least one cheat is utilising this (ripped of without AB's permission it should be noted). Please correct me if I'm wrong but these malicious tools generally don't modify the actual game files (which is what Open IV facilitates), they inject code while it is running.

 

In my mind there are two possibilities:

1) In response to cheating, Take2 have adopted an extreme stance banning the most major modding tool (most likely IMHO without full knowledge of it's capabilities).

2) There is another reason for shutting down Open IV, that they are not sharing. The Liberty City in V project the Open IV team were working on is one possibility, Open IV being used to inspect game files and leak pre-release info is another.

 

My money is on 2) and 1) being used as a (very faulty) PR smoke screen.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Jimbatron

[Pedinhuh]

Well written Kirsty (edited in, forgetting my manners initially).

 

Very much a novice modder here, but my 2 cents.

 

I've made my own IV Multiplayer mod. Nothing malicious - I've made a new Cops 'n Crooks set of getaway locations. The mod is in tight distribution with trusted friends, and the title of the server is hard coded so it's clear anyone is playing a modded game mode (before I get flamed). I have enough knowledge, if I'd have wished, to do things such as enable god mode for specific players and vehicles - but I chose not to.

 

Open IV couldn't be used to make this kind of mod. I haven't tried to edit any GTAO scripts, but at my best guess, it would be the same story. It's not impossible of course someone might have used Open IV in conjunction with other software I'm not aware of, but from my perspective the amount of experience you'd need to do that sort of thing, you'd be fully capable of starting from scratch anyway. At most I would say Open IV might be a CONVENIENT tool for cheaters much in the same way it is for all of us (working out what R* have changed with a patch for example), but I suspect it is neither necessary nor sufficient for the trouble makers.

 

Arguably that's speculation on my part, tempered with experience, but here's exhibit A for the defense: the most notorious and cancerous mod menu has released a new version AFTER Open IV was shut down and the gunrunning update came out. So clearly, shutting down Open IV has not stopped cheating. I'm fairly certain the mod menus causing the problems are all written in languages like C. It might have been more plausible if they'd gone after the Script Hook as we know at least one cheat is utilising this (ripped of without AB's permission it should be noted).

 

In my mind there are two possibilities:

1) In response to cheating, Take2 have adopted an extreme stance banning the most major modding tool (most likely IMHO without full knowledge of it's capabilities).

2) There is another reason for shutting down Open IV, that they are not sharing. The Liberty City in V project the Open IV team were working on is one possibility, Open IV being used to inspect game files and leak pre-release info is another.

 

My money is on 2) and 1) being used as a (very faulty) PR smoke screen.

According to what Ash-274 has said, you're right on the money.

 

Which is really ridiculous when you think about it, I thought that they LOVED the leakers so much they asked the leakers to participate in their streams, and R* has said in the past that they "fondly remember" the mod that made old GTAs maps available on IV.

 

It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Pedinhuh

[BullseyeSBT]

It will stop the money hackers for a little while, but they'll find a way round it soon enough, but honest creators & coders of the singleplayer element still won't be able to mod through fear of getting banned or reset, it's the modding community that have given GTA games through the years a new leases of life, I've even heared of people buying ancient GTA titles just so they can run certain mods, be they TCs or just simple texture imporvements, I do hope Rockstar & Take2 reconsider, I've even been told that OpenIV stops you from going online anyway.

[Claude_Lib]

It will stop the money hackers for a little while

It will NOT change ANYTHING regarding cheating in Online. If you haven't noticed there are ALREADY assholes using the updated Force HAX menu in Online.

[K^2]

It will stop the money hackers for a little while

Not even a little bit. While OpenIV makes it easier to inspect contents of data files, which can be useful in developing certain hacks, there are alternative ways to get to that data out there already, and the actual hacks developed do not involve OpenIV either way. The cumulative delay this creates on money hacking is about five seconds it takes the hacker to process just how mind-numbingly stupid Take-Two has been, and then go on on their merry way to make new hacks.