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The creator of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod that was recently taken down after a DMCA from CD Projekt Red isn't ruling out making it "free for everyone," but says it's become somewhat irrelevant since its removal has led to pirating, and some saying "I should be punished by having it stolen."
Modder Luke Ross is well known for his R.E.A.L VR mod framework, which brings VR support to over 40 games including Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and – once upon a time, before a separate DMCA from Take-Two Interactive – Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 5. However, his VR mod for Cyberpunk 2077 was recently pulled offline, with CD Projekt Red's vice president of business development, Jan Rosner, explaining that it's due to Ross charging for his mods, namely locking them behind a $10 Patreon subscription paywall.
This, Rosner said, "directly violates our Fan Content Guidelines," but "we are big fans of mods to our games" and would welcome its return if Ross made it free. Ross previously responded to say "I don't believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free," but now, speaking to IGN, he says "I do not rule out releasing the mod" at no cost.
There are some immediate issues, though. "It would take time, because my software supports 40+ games and various completely different engines, which makes creating a version that specifically supports only Cyberpunk 2077 a non-trivial task," he explains. "Also, the people who have voluntarily given their money to me in order to support my development efforts for the framework might not be happy about seeing the mod being given away all of a sudden to everyone just because I've been bullied into it."
Besides, Ross says, "it's kind of become a moot point." According to the modder, after the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod was "forcibly removed" from his Patreon page, "people afraid of losing VR support for their favorite games have started pirating and illegally exchanging the mod all over the Internet, brazenly saying that since I was not complying with CDPR's ToS, my work is now fair game and I should be punished by having it stolen. So in a sense CDPR already got what they wanted."
Looking around online on Twitter and on Ross' Patreon's page, it's certainly fair to say the modder has had his fair share of backlash. Some have called him "greedy" for wanting to charge for the mod, while others claim that they're going to "steal your mods from now on and tell everyone where to find them" in response to Ross not making the Cyberpunk 2077 one free to preserve its availability. I've also seen one person sharing a link to what they claim is a free download of the mod, which I'm not going to share here for obvious reasons, but you can understand Ross's frustration.
The modder still asserts that "I do not modify the content of the games, or try to sell an experience which is in competition with what the IP creators are producing," pointing out that "you always need to own the original game" to even use the VR mods. "In the end, when gamers are playing for example Cyberpunk in VR, they are not playing my mod. They are playing Cyberpunk, and loving it. How this could ever hurt the publisher and trigger free-or-kill reactions still baffles me," he says.
