There appears to be new updates on the legal battle that began last year between Rockstar and a group of modders reverse engineering classic GTA III and GTA Vice City.

It all started when Take-Two sued 5 amateur modders who were working on reverse-engineering mods for the classic GTA series in 2021. At that time, a few weeks after Take-Two's lawsuit, the amateur developers themselves countersued the company.

A cool showdown between Rockstar and mods for GTA III and GTA Vice City

The reason for the lawsuit comes after the targeted group filed a counterclaim on GitHub weeks after Take-Two sent out a notice about the complete removal of its GTA III and GTA Vice City reverse engineering projects.

The argument of these developers was that they did not use any of the mentioned game features in their modifications, although there was communication to get Rockstar's approval about adding such modifications to both titles, but Rockstar did not respond to it.

This led the team to believe that Rockstar's lack of response equated to a lack of interest in the matter, as the project had been reactivated on GitHub and the development process for the mods had been completed. However, the team was surprised when Rockstar and its parent company, Take-Two, pursued the team and made modifications to GTA III and GTA Vice City and demanded their removal.

This issue also angered the gaming community, who claimed that games like GTA III and GTA Vice City are no longer playable on modern operating systems, and these modifications, which rely on reverse engineering, contribute to running these games and improving their performance on new Windows systems.

The developers responsible for reverse engineering GTA III and GTA Vice City also claim that they were initially unaware of Rockstar's intention to re-release the collection as part of the latest GTA Trilogy package. They added that they did not receive any kind of gain or profit from the sale of these modifications, and everything was given to the gaming community without any compensation.

Where did the case end?

According to new updates on the lawsuit, Take-Two and the GTA mod group have reached an agreement in principle to resolve the matter through a new settlement that is expected to take place within the next 30 days. This means that there will be no criminal charges against the group behind the reverse engineering projects, but they could face some financial charges without going to a jury. Although what will be agreed upon between the two parties will likely not be made public.

Meanwhile, all reverse-engineered adaptations of the two titles or any of Rockstar's other classic titles have been pulled, while the company has re-released the first three classic installments of the series in an enhanced version on home platforms and PC.

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