Take-Two trying to shutdown popular GTA Online mod menu
UPDATE: More mods have been taken down.
UPDATE 12/8/21: Ozark was just one of a series of mods taken down on Tuesday. Popular mod repository LibertyCity released a statement stating Take-Two has requested the removal of the following mods: Vice Cry: Remastered 1.0, OpenManhunt 1.0.0, Liberty revind, Bullworth - OpenBull 1.0.0, ViIV, Grand Theft Auto V: Bullworth 0.1 [ALPHA], SA2LC, and Liberty City & Vice City v4.0.
What's so significant about these ports is they are ports of locations, cities, cars and characters of old Grand Theft Auto titles on the newer Grand Theft Auto engine.
This could potentially be a sign that Rockstar has plans to remaster its older titles.
Take-Two Interactive is attempting to shut down Ozark, a popular mod menu for Grand Theft Auto Online.
As you would expect from a mod menu, Ozark lets modders manipulate the game, both in the campaign and online, to their liking, allowing them to teleport, instakill, spawn vehicles, drop money, and more.
While modding single player games has some legal ambiguity (Take-Two also seems determined to make all forms of modding illegal), modding multiplayer sessions is detrimental to the experience of other players.
The unfortunate reality of Grand Theft Auto Online on PC is that it is ridden with modders which at times can make the game unplayable. It's perhaps understandable then that Take-Two has taken the legal route to stop the distribution of such mods.
However, Take-Two has received criticism for serving legal threats to single-player mods, especially for its older games. GTA United, a mod for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, was taken down by its developers for fear of legal threats.
Ozark was available through Mod resellers for £21.50 ($25). Although some sites now show a notice saying the mod has been taken down by Take-Two, others still have it up for sale. It appears Take-Two's lawyers have more work to do.