Take Two Interactive has sent private investigators to the houses of at least two GTA V modding team members.
The founder of FiveM's subreddit narrated his side of the story.
"So I just got a pair of PIs at my door claiming to be sent by Take Two, handing me a phone with a person somewhere in the UK or US or whatever to 'discuss how to cease my activities with regard to Grand Theft Auto', that 'they know what happened before with Activision and want to not get the lawyers involved at this time', however they 'have tested their legal standing already and are quite certain of their point' and 'aren't willing to accept any solution other than ceasing my activities'. Oh, they also 'couldn't disclose any conversations they're having with other modification developers', didn't want to talk about general modification policy as 'it was just about my case' and admitted they 'looked through my source code'."
Similarly, the official web site of Grand Theft Auto: Multiplayer mod now states that the mod is gone for good.
"If we would have continued, they could have sued us, and maybe we even could have made the gameplay experience for GTA:5 and GTA:O worse (as Rockstar might just stop GTA:O updates). A lot of people stated that Rockstar and Take2 could have worked with us together and improved the GTA:Online experience, but obviously they have enough employees to care about GTA:5 and GTA:O.
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We confirm that private investigators also visited bit and xforce. But Take2 could have contacted us way worse as they did, but they chose a way without any lawyers and further dispute settlements."
This is not the first time Take Two takes action against FiveM creators. Back in August Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take Two, banned the team from its social club. Back then, Rockstar justified its decision by asserting that "the FiveM project is an unauthorized alternate multiplayer service that contains code designed to facilitate piracy."
Take Two didn't respond to requests for comments. However, we have to admit that sending PIs to speak with the modders is much better than sending lawyers. Of course, Take Two could've been more diplomatic by sending somebody from customer relations even though they still had to use PI's to find out the modders' identities.
