TheGrandTheft Autois one of the best-selling series in video game history, selling millions of copies in each installment since the first one was published in 1997. With most talking about theleaked release date ofGTA 6, there are those who have been looking back, and have unfortunately found themselves in hot water because of it.
In a recent report, a fan project which looked at reverse-engineering the source code forGrand Theft Auto 3andVice City,has been hit with a takedown order from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The project has been in the making for a number of years, and was even made available on GitHub. The idea was to enable the modding community to bring new and interesting aspects to the classic games, such as ray-tracing and the ability to port to other platforms.
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The source indicates that the project’s chief creator says they were hit with a DMCA takedown allegedly from Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two. The takedown says the source codes infringe on copyright of bothGrand Theft Auto 3andVice Cityand subsequently all files have been removed from GitHub due to “unauthorized” use of intellectual property owned by the parent company. This is not the first time a company has taken down fan projects, either. Earlier this year,Nintendo removed hundreds of fan gamesfrom sites such as Game Jolt.
The fans behind the reverse-engineered code did state they were worried about Rockstar and/or Take-Two intervening on the project, and despite trying to stay “under the radar,” they received a lot of attention once the Switch ports became available. It’s hardly surprising they were concerned about the studio coming after them. Rockstar have built something of a reputation over the years for their controversial antics. Many will rememberthe infamous “Hot Coffee"mod forSan Andreasin which the company blamed the community for the interactive sex mod which was already buried in the game’s official code.
With news of theDMCA takedown, the reverse-engineers' other project, which looks at doing a similar thing toLiberty City Storieson the PSP, has an uncertain future. It’s unlikely that Rockstar/Take-Two will take kindly to any tinkering with their IP’s source code, but if it does see the light of day, it will be the first time the PSPGrand Theft Autogame will have a PC port.
