A group of programmers that Take-Two issued a lawsuit against in September has responded to the publisher’s claims by seeking a court judgment in their favor because they believe that Take-Two’s claims hold no credence.
The programmers in question are a group of fourteen individuals from around the world who worked together to create the re3 Project, a reverse-engineered source code for GTA 3 and GTA Vice City that also offers the ability to port the games to PS Vita, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch. The release includes bug fixes and improvements that the programmers have made to make the games more playable by today’s standards, such as controller and widescreen monitor support.
According to VGC, Take-Two’s lawsuit outlines how the programmers “are well aware that they do not possess the right to copy, adapt, or distribute derivative GTA source code or the audiovisual elements of the games, and that doing so constitutes copyright infringement.”
Take-Two’s claims make it sound like the re3 Project is being downloaded by players as an alternative to purchasing GTA 3 and GTA Vice City. However, while it has been reverse-engineered from the original game files, it doesn’t use any original Rockstar Games-created assets, music, images, dialogue, in-game audio, etc. A copy of GTA 3 and GTA Vice City are required to run the re3 Project or build your own port for one of the aforementioned devices.
The recent GTA: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition release was a disaster. GTA 3, GTA Vice City, and GTA San Andreas launched with more bugs than the original versions had and many missing features. While Rockstar Games is working to improve the trilogy, many players have resorted to mods to fix the games in the meantime. In light of these releases, which include what should be a fully functional version of the games for Nintendo Switch, it will be interesting to see how a court responds to the programmers’ request.
