„There’s no point getting angry about it.” GTA co-creator explains Rockstar's latest moves targeting modders
The makers of the GTA series have recently put players at risk by blocking ambitious mods. A former Rockstar Games employee notes that these conflicted with the company's interests.
We recently informed about two ambitious mods related to the GTA series, the Liberty City Preservation Project and Vice City: The NextGen Edition. Both projects received a swift response from Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games. As a result, the first one was removed, and the second one was released online through private channels. Now one of the former employees of the American studio has addressed the matter.
"This is what companies are supposed to do"
Obbe Vermeij should be well recognized by Grand Theft Auto fans. He worked at Rockstar Games until 2009, where he participated in the creation of many installments of this popular series. He often publishes interesting facts from those times, such as the genesis of the movie camera, the deliberate filling of streets with garbage, or the trick with traffic.
He has now expressed his views on the removal of community-created modifications by Take-Two and Rockstar Games. Vermeij notes that this is a move that makes perfect sense from a business point of view. At the end of the day, the most important thing for a company is profit, and such projects could conflict with their potential interests.
There’s no point getting angry about it. This is what companies are supposed to do.
Vermeij notes that VC: The NextGen Edition is a direct competitor to GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. In turn, the Liberty City Preservation Project could potentially conflict with a remaster of GTA 4 - however, he emphasized that he has no idea if such a thing is even being created.
The best we can hope for is that they allow mods that don’t interfere with their business. Such as DCA3 (GTA 3 for Dreamcast). Afaik they have recently been decent about letting these projects continue.
The devs' statements aren't particularly innovative, and the motivation behind Take-Two and Rockstar Games should be clear to everyone, even if they disapprove of the situation.
Some people in the comments also pointed out that they wouldn't feel such great anger if the remasters released by the studio were of good quality, obviously referring to the Definitive Edition. Vermeij agreed with these opinions.
