Rockstar Gets Open IV Back, With a Catch

Welcome to business bullcrappery, ladies and gentlemen, I'll be your guide for the evening as we delve further into the case of Take-Two and the attack of the mods.

If you recall, last we spoke about Take-Two, they had gone after tools that allowed hackers to cheat on GTA Online, which was good. But then they also attacked the popular mod-creating tool largely used by fans to modify GTA 5's single-player game, which showed they were looking at a complex, precise issue and decided a shotgun blast was the best way to sort things out. Take-Two's rampage caused fan outcry, and also made GTA 5's reviews to fall to the "mostly negative" zone over Steam... so it was only a matter of time before Rockstar, the actual developer of the game, stepped in to do something.

And if you ever doubted Rockstar's cred, well, prepare for some re-education, son, because it seems they've actually spoken with Take-Two behind closed doors and convinced them to ease up on their crusade against mods... or at least, be more selective.

Rockstar has always been a big supporter of mods on the PC version of their game, and that's been reflected by they way they've spoken about mods in the past and their eagerness to showcase some on their website. It seems their days of being so open about their support are numbered, but they've been able to do the important thing and get Take-Two to allow Open IV to resume business... with some caveats.

If you don't want to be bothered to read all that, it basically says that Rockstar supports mods, but 1) Won't allow any change to the online functionality, 2) Does not represent Take-Two, or their stance on mods, 4) Does not infringe on any rights, and 4) That their opinion on mods can change at any time for any reason if Take-Two wants them too. So to save Open IV, they kind of sold their soul, which is... admirable, in some respect.

But for fans of single-player modding, this is about as close to a victory as we could hope for. So raise a toast to Rockstar, and let's enjoy Open IV before the next disaster hits.