GTA V, Mafia, and Red Dead Redemption 2 VR mods are dead – and Take 2 Interactive killed them

If you’ve been enjoying either Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V, or Mafia: The Definitive Edition in VR thanks to some handy fan-made mods, we’ve got some bad news. Thanks to a DMCA claim by Take Two Interactive - the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2K - has led development on the most popular VR mods to grind to a halt.

This news comes via Luke Ross - the sole creator of a variety of VR mods for the aforementioned games - who released a lengthy post to his supporters. In it, he claims to have received a DMCA request from Take Two Interactive for his projects and that the company requested that he “remove all their copyrighted works from [his] Patreon page”. This was confirmed by Kotaku who reached out to Patreon directly.

In a post to his followers, Luke Ross writers: “As I publicly stated many times, I honor and respect copyright and my intention has always been to allow gamers to experience the wonderful worlds created by Rockstar and 2K (among other companies) in Virtual Reality, which only translates to more customer satisfaction and more copies sold for them. I don't sell or host anything exploiting or repurposing their original IP and assets and my mods only work if the user already owns a legal copy of their original games.”

The post has since been updated with additional information, including a claim that Take Two Interactive has yet to establish direct contact with the creator. “No word from Take-Two for now, but Patreon has offered to try and establish a direct channel. I'm grateful for that and I hope that the effort will succeed and lead to a positive resolution, because I'm firmly convinced that what we're doing cannot be hurting Take-Two's bottom line in any way.”

This is just the latest in a series of offensive plays made by the IP holders against modders and fan creators of Take Two Interactive titles. An especially painful example of this comes from the former developers of GTA Underground announcing the end of their mod project due to fears of legal repercussions from the company.

This is an especially sad trend when you consider the vastness of the modding community for these games. Earlier this year, we covered the San Andreas multiplayer modding community that still thrives to this day, which showcases the deep history of fan creations in this space.

What are your thoughts on this story? Would you have been interested in playing GTA V, Mafia: The Definitive Edition, or Red Dead Redemption 2 in VR? Let us know below.