Grand Theft Auto V feature-2

GTA V “FiveM” Modder Received Private Investigators, Forcing Him To Shut Down His Project


Things are getting out of hand with GTA V’s mod, FiveM. FiveM started as a fan multiplayer mod for GTA V that received a C&D letter from Take-Two. And yesterday, NTAuthority claimed that some Private Investigators from Take-Two went to his home, forcing him to completely shut down his project.

the public part of FiveM is the only part of the project that is currently no longer under development, and that the base framework is still being developed.

As NTAuthority wrote on Reddit:

“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 activiites’. 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’.”

Back in September when we reported the news of FiveM’s cancellation, NTAuthority got in touch with us and told us that the base framework of this mod was still under development.

“If you followed my full Twitter or even had a single glance at the FiveM project page, you’d have known that the only part of the project that was ‘no longer under development’ (for the time being) was the public part of FiveM – not the base framework, which would be able to be used by anyone (as the HTML comments on fivem.net indicate); including to create exactly what FiveM originally consisted of.

This measure was necessary as the amount of people on the FiveM community forums (and greater GTA community) spouting disbelief in FiveM ever ‘being finished’ (and reposting the same ‘bugs’ in the initial release — that was never meant to be, but was only officially released as the initial builds from the source code repository became slightly too popular and had massive flaws) became only a hindrance to further development.”

Our guess is that Take-Two wants NTAuthority to completely stop working on that base framework.

For what is worth, it’s really sad witnessing something like that. We love modders as they often surprise us and NTAuthority’s mod was really interesting. Yes, it was a mod that would, perhaps, rival the official MP mode. However, Rockstar Games – and other developers – should start learning from these guys instead of doing their best to shut them down.

Here is a hint publishers and developers; instead of fighting modders, embrace them. Think outside the box. There is a reason why Treyarch decided to offer mod tools for Black Ops III and Bethesda is so open to mods.