Take-Two sueing modders

We need moar money.

Perfectly within their right, ey guess.

Take-Two Sues GTA Reverse Engineering Project

The re3 project makes GTA III and GTA Vice City playable on Switch

Take-Two Interactive is pulling a Nintendo. Yesterday, the Grand Theft Auto publisher filed suit in California’s Northern District against 14 programmers behind re3 project, a fan-driven effort that offers reverse-engineered source code for Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Crucially, re3 project makes Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City playable on platforms where the games have never been released, including the Nintendo Switch.

That’s likely what spurred Take-Two to activate its army of white-shoe lawyers at a Manhattan-based law firm. Re3 project has been around for several years but has largely avoided legal scrutiny. But now, it could impact the company’s bottom line.

Last month, Rockstar was working on a collection that would include remastered versions of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas—and that it was coming to the Switch. Though the collection hasn’t been officially revealed, sources say it’s targeting a release later this year. It’ll also come out for PlayStation and Xbox. (PC and mobile versions are planned for a 2022 release.)

“Perhaps most notably, Defendants claim that their derivative GTA source code enables players to install and run the Games on multiple game platforms, including those on which the Games never have been released, such as the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch,” MSK attorneys Karin G. Pagnanelli and Marc E. Mayer wrote in the complaint.

Take-Two is seeking a preliminary injunction—basically, legalese for a court order that halts behavior before a ruling is determined—and seeking a jury trial.

It’s not the only legal move Take-Two has taken recently against unsanctioned Grand Theft Auto code. Last month, the company issued a wave of DMCA takedowns for some of the biggest mods related to the series. One might wonder why Take-Two is all of sudden kicking the suits into high gear, but the answer seems pretty obvious.

The main difference between this and other reverse engineering projects like SM64 is:

The team doing the reverse engineering is also doing the coding. They are essentially de-compiling the binary and looking at the code the original developers created, then copying it down. This is where the GTA3 team kinda screwed themselves.

In the case of something like SM64, the team reverse engineering was done by a separate entity and was doing it to understand and document the mechanics for the speed running community. This documentation was later used by another entity to make a clone of the game that features the same mechanics.

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It's also important to understand that in neither case are the devs providing the game assets which would be considered distribution of copyrighted material. If you grab the source code and manage to build it for your platform of choice, you still need a copy of the original game to grab the assets from.

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I hope the judge is able to understand the intricacies involved in the case and does not set a president that kills all current and future reverse engineering projects, as that would be devastating for so many communities around gaming and programming.

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Also fuuck Take-Two, regardless.

Thanks for the breakdown, I remember EA famously reverse engineered the Genesis to strong arm Sega into a better licensing deal, so I was wondering how something like this could be brought to court.

I don't know anything about "trade law" or whatever you call it (copyright, trademark, etc) but I think there should be a 10-15 year period and then software becomes open-source and/or free.

That's plenty of time to allow publishers/developers to come out with the newest and latest revision to make money off of, and by the time the 10-15 years go by no one is really buying that software, they just want to have fun with it.

Obviously I can see people taking issue with this, but honestly how much money out of the billions they make each and every year is GTA 3 and Vice City making for them?

@mrbojangles25: If things were that easy, my uphill battle to make legacy games accessible at the university would be a breeze.

I mean I think that take two is a terrible company and all for pissing on them, buuut having a hard time not understanding why they won’t allow a free version of one of their games come to a platform it previously haven’t been released on…

How's that going? Do you have to write letters to the publishers for every game and ask for permission?

Genuinely curious, sounds like quite a project.

You load them on some university-wide system for all to use? Or more as a centralized database (like a library)?

At the moment the game plan is as follows

• acquire physical copy
• rip the game
• store on local private server (accessible to all on the universities network using university credentials.
• make game playable via emulation and limit access base on available copies on the server
• house it under the school's library for additional legal protections

I hoping it all falls into place.

The press is complace... wait, this isn't Nintendo and another fan game. Carry on.

If GTA3 was commercially available on the Switch I doubt it would sell more than a few 1000s copies. Still, making it freely available like this is a kind of piracy, I guess

@pmanden: "If GTA3 was commercially available on the Switch I doubt it would sell more than a few 1000s copies."

Why you say that?

Because... Rockstar and Nintendo go about as well go about as well as Peanut Butter and Booze. Plus, they have a pretty bad history with each other, so I honestly doubt it's gonna happen anyway.

@PSP107: Haven't people already played GTA3 to death? And as for the younger generation that never played GTA3 I doubt that the game with its outdated graphics and mechanics would appeal to them.

Kinda shitty Take Two is doing, and getting exactly the results they want.

Feel bad for these fellows, dedicated themselves to these games since they were basically teenagers in school. Just to be told "**** off" so the company can make a quick-buck off probably massively overpriced remasters.

Makers of ambitious Rockstar '3D universe' GTA San Andreas mod cease development themselves "due to increasing hostility towards modding community"

"... and imminent danger to our mental and financial well-being."

This was "due to the increasing hostility towards the modding community and imminent danger to our mental and financial well-being", chief developer dkluin wrote in a post on GTAForums.com.

"We would like to thank the community for the immense support they've given us for the past years and our talented modding team for the incredible work, dedication and great times we had together."

Modder dkluin started GTA Underground in 2014 when he was a young teen. The PC San Andreas mod aimed to unite the entire Rockstar 3D era universe into a single mod, with maps from Vice City, GTA 3, the Manhunt games and even Bully added with their own weapons, vehicles and more - all without replacing any original San Andreas content. Multiplayer was added last year.

GTA Underground was pulled from ModDB in July due to a DMCA takedown notice from Take-Two. At the time, dkluin said the mod team was "trying to look for a solution", with release plans "put to rest for the time being".

With Take-Two seemingly on a mission to shut down San Andreas mods asRockstar reportedly prepares to release remasters of GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas itself, andthe developers of the eye-catching re3 project being sued by the companyin the state of California, dkluin and co think clearly they're better off getting the hell out. The team waved goodbye in the video, below:

The demise of GTA Underground follows the same decision for the same reasons by the makers of a 14-year-old San Andreas mod called GTA United in July.

While GTA Underground is no more, dkluin said it may not be the end for the team behind it.

"A lot of members in the team as well as some modders from outside the team have shown interest in making our own game title," dkluin said.

"We cannot confirm or deny anything about such a thing, but we'll keep you posted."

@pmanden: " Haven't people already played GTA3 to death? And as for the younger generation that never played GTA3 I doubt that the game with its outdated graphics and mechanics would appeal to them."

What if they update the graphics?

F**k T2. I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on what this OP is about however what T2 is doing in general to modders is damn right shi*ty and doesn't have a chance to stand in court and they know it full well. They are just throwing these DMCA's because to scare the people because they probably won't have the means and money to fight them in the court. It seems to be working. They are practically bullying them because they have the money and power to do so.

People got GTA 3 running on Switch before R* was able to get GTA 3 running on Switch.

Modders ruining the developers original vision once again.

Sad thing is, if this were Nintendo, this thread would already be 2+ pages...

This is outrageous, it's unfair.

A proper remake would be sweet. I recently played GTA Vice City for the first time, and while it was still enjoyable, it could have been so much better if it had updated controls, improved graphics and mechanics.