Transcription:

Take 2 is taking this too far you’d
think after trying to shut down the Vice
City next gen mod before release they’d
move on but no they just won’t stop even
after thousands of fans downloaded and
praised the mod Take 2 is still on a
mission to erase it from the internet
targeting the modders at every turn not
long ago the revolution team a small
group of four modders from Russia shared
a heartfelt post on their VK page
friends it’s so great to see what a
close and supportive Community we have
thank you for your support but their
excitement didn’t last long just a day
later take 2 struck again taking down
their telegram Channel which hosted
links to the mod and general project
updates the team broke the news on VK
saying friends we have bad news today
our telegram channel was hit with a dmca
strike for copyright infringement and
within an hour of the complaint the
channel was completely removed at the
time of deletion our community had
9,142 members actively discussing the
project and helping each other this is
now the second successful attempt to cut
us off from our audience tough days for
our team it’s a shame that things are
turning out this way at this point it
looks like for the first time in years
we’re watching an actual war between
Take 2 Rockstar’s parent company and
modders usually when a GTA mod gets hit
with a dmca notice the creators accept
the takedown abandon their work and
that’s the end of it but this time
things played out differently Take 2
tried to stop this mod before it even
launched by wiping out Revolution team’s
YouTube channel just 2 days before
release but instead of instead of
backing down they went ahead and dropped
the mod anyway not just as a simple GTA
4 mod but as a fully playable Standalone
version of Vice City on the rage engine
and clearly that didn’t sit well with
Take 2 the mod is already out thousands
of people have downloaded it and yet
take two is still chasing the team down
trying to silence them at every turn and
it’s not just telegram after their first
YouTube channel was deleted Revolution
team made a new one just to re-upload
the trailer I saw it literally yesterday
and it had already passed 100 30,000
views but now that channel has been
wiped out too and while checking their
VK page I noticed that the mods trailer
has gone there as well so what happens
next will Revolution team keep fighting
or will take to eventually get the last
word and the bigger question how does
take two not see how much people love
this mod I see walkthroughs of the mod
popping up on YouTube literally every
day comments under the videos are
overwhelmingly positive people are
loving this project and yet Take 2 still
refuses to let it slide at this point
it’s not even about the mod anymore it’s
about take two trying to prove a point
and honestly it just makes them look
worse it feels like the company is going
after any mod that gains even a little
bit of traction the moment articles or
popular videos start covering a mod they
step in and try to wipe it off the
internet we saw this happened with the
Liberty City preservation project a few
weeks ago and now they’re going even
harder on Vice City NextGen and yeah you
could argue well obviously these mods
break copyright laws and technically
you’d be right Rockstar’s official
policy does say that porting assets
especially maps from one GTA game to
another is not allowed but if that’s the
case why was preservation project taken
down while Liberty City remix is still
up on multiple sites without any sign of
take two trying to remove it and why is
nextg Edition being wiped out completely
while another mod Vice City Rage which
also ports Vice City’s map into GTA 4
has been around since 2011 and is never
been taken down in over 14 years Vice
City Rage wasn’t as groundbreaking since
it didn’t include missions but still why
is it fine while nextg Edition isn’t the
only explanation that could make sense
is that both mods became too popular
maybe if the moders kept a lower profile
these mods would still be around but
even that theory falls apart when you
realize that Vice City Rage had its
share of media coverage too there were
articles about it back in 2011 and 2013
yet no takedowns no bans nothing
something has changed I don’t know what
exactly set them off but take 2’s
Crackdown on mods has gotten way worse
since 2021 right around the time were
preparing to launch the GTA Trilogy
Definitive Edition that’s when they
suddenly started handing out dmca
notices left and right shutting down
mods that ported Maps or assets even
mods that didn’t actually break any
copyright rules it got so ridiculous
that they even banned a save file for
GTA 4 which is just hilarious at that
point looking back it’s obvious what
happened right before launching the
trilogy Take 2 wanted to eliminate the
competition they knew the remaster was
going to be a disaster at launch even
though it’s in better shape now and they
didn’t want mods out there making their
official release look even worse and
since they realized how easy it was to
get mods taken down and that most
modders wouldn’t fight back they just
kept going and that brings us back to
Revolution team Vice City nextg Edition
wasn’t their first project these guys
have been at it for a long time back in
2013 they released the first trailer for
an ambitious project called Vice City 2
a full-fledged sequel to Vice City set
in modern times and built on the rage
engine development took way longer than
expected but they kept posting
screenshots and videos on their YouTube
channel which of course is now gone
after years of delays and pauses they
finally released the first demo of the
mod in December 2020 and back then it
was just three people working on the
project they kept pushing forward
improving the mod adding content but
then take two struck again in September
2021 just before the launch of the
trilogy Definitive Edition take two shut
it down completely Revolution team
posted this statement at the time
unfortunately the situation is is that
the Vice City 2 was removed from
moddb.com due to copyright infringement
based on the negative experience of
colleagues in the community we are
forced to stop further development of
the mod in order to avoid any problems
as it turned out lawsuits and financial
threats from Take 2 are more than real
and hostility towards mod developers is
just starting to gain momentum it looked
like the end but as we can see now
Revolution team wasn’t about to give up
after that takedown they shifted gears
and started working on Vice City nextg
Edition and maybe after everything
they’d been through they figured there
wasn’t much Take 2 could really do to
stop them on top of that they’re based
in Russia which makes it a lot harder
for Take 2 to actually sue them or take
legal action Beyond dmca claims now
we’re at a Crossroads there are really
only two ways this can go first the
worst case scenario Take 2 finds a way
to completely erase Vice City nextg
Edition from the internet and somehow
holds Revolution team accountable maybe
they go after hosting sites maybe they
escalate things legally who knows and
the other option take two realizes they
can’t win they see that the mod isn’t
going away that the GTA Community
overwhelmingly supports it and they
finally ease up on mods like this right
now it’s impossible to say which way
it’ll go but one thing is clear this
isn’t over yet at this point a big
question in the community is who’s
really pulling the strings here is this
all take to’s doing or is Rockstar
actually in favor of these takedowns
it’s easy to assume Take 2 is the
villain here but the truth is they’ve
owned Rockstar for a long time they
bought Rockstar’s parent company BMG
interactive back in 1998 which means
Rockstar has been under take 2’s control
for over 25 years and for most of that
time Rockstar was mod friendly they let
the community experiment with mods and
in some cases they even celebrated them
back in the day Rockstar would feature
fan-made mods on their newswire they
didn’t see modders as a threat they saw
them as a creative part of the community
so what changed the biggest shift
happened when Rockstar started making
insane money from G GTA online before
that they were focused on single player
games where mods didn’t really hurt
their bottom line but when GTA online
became a cash machine things changed
suddenly they had a reason to protect
their content aggressively modding went
from being a fun Community project to
something that in their eyes could hurt
their revenue and then we have the 5m
situation for years that platform was a
huge problem for Rockstar it let people
play GTA online like servers without
microtransactions which meant players
weren’t spending money on Shark cards
Rockstar initially banned the 5m
developers trying to shut them down but
eventually they realized they couldn’t
win so what did they do they bought them
in August 2023 Rockstar officially
acquired cfx.re the team behind 5m and
redm on paper this looked like Rockstar
was embracing the modding Community but
that wasn’t the full story just 6 months
later 5 M’s founder was fired from
Rockstar the original people who built
the platform were replaced with new
developers inside Rockstar meaning the
modding community lost control of what
they had created it was a classic if you
can’t beat them by them move Rockstar
absorbed 5m gained full control over it
and then removed the original leadership
so what does this tell us it shows that
Rockstar isn’t innocent in all of this
yes take two is the one sending dmca
notices but Rockstar isn’t exactly
fighting for modders either they could
have stepped in and defended the
community but they haven’t instead they
let take two wipe out mods while they
continue to focus on GTA online and
official content the reality is both
Rockstar and take 2 have shifted
priorities back when Rockstar was just
making single player games mods were a
fun addition to their legacy but now
they’re protecting their cash flow and
that’s why mods like Vice City nextg
Edition are seen as a threat not because
they hurt Rockstar financially but
because they remind players of something
Rockstar isn’t making anymore great
single player experiences Take 2 has
been on a mission to wipe out mods but
here’s the thing this isn’t the first
time they’ve tried and it’s not the
first time the community has pushed back
there’s already proof that take 2 can be
forced to reverse a takedown if the
backlash is big enough and the best
example of that open four if you’ve ever
modded GTA 4 or 5 you know what open
four is it’s the most important modding
tool for the series allowing players to
modify game files add custom cars
weapons maps and more without it most
single player mods wouldn’t even be
possible but in 2017 Take 2 tried to
kill open four they sent a legal cease
and toist letter to the developers
demanding they shut down the completely
their reasoning that open 4 allowed
third parties to defeat security
features in GTA 5 and could be used to
interfere with GTA online this was
complete [ __ ] open 4 never supported
GTA online mods it was strictly for
single player but take 2 didn’t care
they wanted it gone and for a moment it
looked like they had won the open four
devs complied with the legal notice and
shut everything down that’s when the GTA
Community went insane the backlash was
immediate and huge the steam rating for
GTA 5 plummeted to overwhelmingly
negative thousands of players review
bombed the game dropping its rating to
one of the worst on Steam at the time
modding communities YouTubers and gaming
media all called out take 2’s greed
pointing out that this was an attack on
singleplayer mods not just online cheats
players even boycotted GTA online
refusing to spend money on Shark cards
and guess what it worked just a week
later Rockstar issued a public statement
that completely backtracked on the
takedown they claimed that take 2 would
no longer go after single player mods
and that open 4 was free to continue
development this was a huge win for the
modding Community one of the only times
Take 2 was forced to retreat because of
public outrage right now we’re in a
similar situation Take 2 is attacking a
fan-made mod that doesn’t hurt GTA
online doesn’t steal money from Rockstar
and only exists to celebrate an old game
the big question is can the community
push back hard enough to make a
difference if GTA players YouTubers and
media Outlets apply enough pressure take
two could be forced to ease up on
modding again just like in 2017 but
here’s the problem back then the
backlash was easy to measure players
could review bomb GTA 5 on Steam making
their voices heard now GTA 5 is bigger
than ever and GTA online prints money
even if players boycott Shark cards it’s
unlikely to make a huge dent in
Rockstar’s Revenue but that doesn’t mean
it’s impossible if enough big creators
journalists and the community keep
talking about this we might not fully
reverse the takedown but we could force
Rockstar and take two to rethink how
they handle mods maybe they stop Banning
mods that don’t affect GTA online maybe
they give modders more breathing room
because one thing is clear if modders
don’t fight back take two will keep
doing this

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_t0bdK1bZA