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Video game companies bring joy to gamers thanks to the entertainment their video games bring. However, some video game companies can make it hard for players to enjoy their games, especially when they do really shady stuff. One of the most controversial teams this year is Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of very well-known labels 2K and Rockstar. While many of the publisher's games have undeniably brought happiness to those who played them, there are still a lot of scummy things that Take-Two did this year that we feel bears mentioning. Here are all the bad things Take-Two Interactive did this year.
Take-Two Took Down GTA Mods with DMCA Strikes
Take-Two Interactive first ruffled feathers this year when they started issuing DMCA strikes on reverse-engineered versions of Grand Theft Auto games. These games would wind back up on the Internet, and Take-Two seemingly gave up on taking them down, only to sue the modders later on.
However, Take-Two had new targets right away. They then went after modders, issuing DMCA strikes on popular mods like Vice Cry and GTA: Underground, games that overhauled the games they were modding.
While we do believe that Take-Two is well within their rights to chase these, as they do constitute copyright infringement, it didn't earn them a lot of goodwill for doing so. Remember, those who make and enjoy mods are big fans of the games Take-Two produces, so taking them away is like taking away a toy from a child. They'd definitely not like it, and these guys are no children. It's unthinkable as to why Take-Two would go so far as to take their fans to court just to make them stop modding.
Up to today, Take-Two continues to take down these GTA mods with DMC strikes.
Take-Two Interactive Ruined a Trilogy of Classics
This section would then explain Take-Two Interactive's decision-making in the previous section, and it doesn't paint them in a good light. GTA Trilogy: The Definitive Edition soon went public, and players on the internet have connected the dots. Take-Two is taking down any mod or overhaul of their old Grand Theft Auto games because they intend to release their own revamped versions of the game. They're basically taking down competition.
It makes a lot of business sense, really. They even removed all of the available versions of the games from all storefronts, so that when GTA Trilogy Remastered hit store shelves, you'd have no other choice but to buy it if you wanted to play any of GTA III, GTA San Andreas, and GTA Vice City.
But the bad part here is that the GTA Trilogy Remastered that they delivered was way worse than the originals. They ruined the classics. They made very broken, very sloppy versions of GTA III, GTA San Andreas, and GTA Vice City.
Fans were really mad at Rockstar for this mess. To try to appease fans, Rockstar returned the latest versions of the games online, but only on the Rockstar Launcher. That further infuriated fans, as most of them wanted to play from other storefronts like Steam.
Weeks later, it seems like Rockstar has released enough fixes to make the GTA Trilogy Remastered playable at the very least. However, they're still far from the best versions of the games, which makes us miss the overhaul mods that Take-Two took down.
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They went to E3… to preach about equality and inclusion
Look, we agree with Take-Two Interactive. There should be more accountability in corporations and the gaming industry should be more inclusive. The problem is, we don't need them to preach to us about what corporations need to do. As a corporation, Take-Two simply has to do what they had to say.
Fans were particularly miffed when Take-Two went to E3 to preach about corporate accountability, equality, and inclusion. E3 is all about video game announcements. We don't go there for HR talks and seminars. Take-Two probably thought that with E3's reach and influence, doing their seminars on the E3 live stream would give a larger platform for their advocacies. In theory, that'd be true, but they ended up having gamers tuning out for a different channel instead.
We do appreciate Take-Two Interactive doing these initiatives, though. Just do it on the right platforms next time, please?
Take-Two wants to take It Takes Two‘s Trademark
Finally, and the most recent in this list, was Take-Two Interactive playing the bully in the gaming industry backyard. Hazelight Studios' It Takes Two is definitely not the first game to be victimized by Take-Two Interactive's recent copyright striking spree, but they're the biggest names so far. Thanks to this debacle, more attention has been on this issue. But things aren't going fine for It Takes Two.
It's been reported that It Takes Two developers Hazelight Studios were forced to pull their trademark application when Take-Two Interactive hit them with a copyright strike over the words Take and Two. As a result, Hazelight Studios won't be able to protect their IP's name, when, for example, a copycat game comes out with a similar name. That pleasure now falls unto the hands of Take-Two Interactive alone, who can then bully the poor copycat game for having a name similar to Take-Two Interactive.
While watching over your back is one thing, it's just in poor taste that Take-Two Interactive seems to be using the system to harass and possibly monetize smaller businesses who have had the misfortune to be named anywhere near “Rockstar”, “Civilization”, “Social Club”, “Take-Two”, and, ironically, “Bully”.
Given all of these things, Take-Two has received some level of infamy this year that they've never had before. Let's say, they're now at 3 Stars on the GTA Police Stars system. One more strike and we'd probably see gamers taking up arms against this corporate giant.
