Just weeks after GTA 5 parent company Take-Two shut down OpenIV, the game's most popular modding tool has returned with a go-ahead from the powers that be. Citing Rockstar's newly established policy for creating and playing single-player mods, the OpenIV development team confirmed that it has returned to work with a post on GTAForums. Unfortunately, it's not all back to normal.
Much of OpenIV's recent development was driven by the team's other flagship project: "Liberty City in GTA 5", an extensive conversion of GTA 4's NYC-inspired setting for use in GTA 5. Now that Rockstar has laid out an advisory policy for mods, it's plain to see how this violates the clause ruling out "importation of other IP (including other Rockstar IP) in the project". It's a shame, but at least modders have clear guidelines to work from now to ensure their hard work won't be torn down by angry lawyers.
And yes, people will probably still create Iron Man mods and other verboten stuff like that. They just won't be able to act surprised if they get shut down.
Take-Two initially claimed that "OpenIV enables recent malicious mods that allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody", though it appears to have backed away from that statement now. OpenIV's creators say it "never supported GTA Online modding and will not support it in the future" and thus it should remain within Take-Two's good graces.
Will the return of OpenIV satisfy the many players who review bombed GTA 5's Steam listing en masse? We'll see - recent reviews remain "overwhelmingly negative". Even if this PC GTA community faux pas ends up barely registering in Take-Two's financials, it's still good to keep passionate players happy.
For more GTA, see all the new stuff that arrived as part of GTA Online's Independence Day event.
