Take-Two Interactive has settled its lawsuit against a group of modders that were reverse engineering GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City.
As spotted by @videotech_ on Twitter, the two parties have "settled in principle" and "are finalizing the settlement" details. Court documents submitted in the Northern District of California Court expect a stipulation of dismissal to be sent within the next 30 days, after which the lawsuit will be officially settled.
As noted by Eurogamer, the settlement terms are likely to come with a non-disclosure agreement, so we may never know the details. However, the reverse-engineering project hasn’t returned to GitHub, so it seems likely that it’s been indefinitely shelved.
The GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City reverse engineering project, called Re3 and reVC, first appeared in 2021 promising updated visuals, widescreen support, camera options, and no loading screens. Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive issued a DMCA takedown in February of that year, but the modders countered stating the project contained "no code owned by Take-Two." The project fully returned in June, but then Take-Two sued in September arguing again that the group was unlawfully copying and distributing "to the public infringing source code for two classic GTA titles… without the authorization or consent of Take-Two."
Re3 and reVC were taken down again in October, with Take-Two releasing its own remakes of both games the following month. GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition was widely panned by both critics and players as a bug-filled mess that barely improved upon the originals, with Rockstar admitting, "The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality." A recent Steam release of the remakes has likewise been met with negative reviews.
In other GTA news, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that it was "an emtional matter" when a hacker leaked GTA 6 pre-alpha footage online.
“We take leaks very seriously indeed and they disappoint all of us, it's really frustrating and upsetting to the team," Zelnick said. "However as a business matter we're not affected."
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