- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
Many of you have noticed that two of my recent posts disappeared about a week ago. I apologize that I could not comment personally about the fact, because there was an ongoing legal exchange.
Now that the dust has settled, I’m even more sorry to announce that we are leaving behind an adventure that so many of you deeply loved and enjoyed. CD PROJEKT S.A. decided that they would follow in Take-Two Interactive Software’s steps and issued a DMCA notice against me for the removal of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod.
At least they were a little more open about it, and I could get a reply both from their legal department and from the VP of business development. But in the end it amounted to the same iron-clad corpo logic: every little action that a company takes is in the name of money, but everything that modders do must be absolutely for free.
As usual they stretch the concept of “derivative work” until it’s paper-thin, as though a system that allows visualizing 40+ games in fully immersive 3D VR was somehow built making use of their intellectual property. And as usual they give absolutely zero f***s about how playing their game in VR made people happy, and they cannot just be grateful about the extra copies of the title they sold because of that—without ever having to pour money into producing an official conversion (no, they’re not planning to release their own VR port, in case you were wondering).
The bottom line is all that matters, and gamers be damned.
Am I a little bitter about all of this? Yeah, you bet I am. Especially in the same week when Meta pulls the plug on three major VR studios. Especially after four years during which I (together with other modders) spent so much time keeping our mods alive in spite of CDPR’s constant breaking updates. Especially when they never even knew or cared during all this time that the VR conversion was there, and are only knee-jerk reacting now because somebody reported to them that it existed and it was not free.
What really irks me is the duplicity with which the corpo mind thinks and reacts.
—“Are you considering an official VR port of your game?” —“HAHAHA, you must be delusional, why would we spend our precious money building something only because gamers yearn for it, when there’s no clear return on investment”.
—“Are you allowing developers to be at least supported financially while they do the work you refuse to do?” —“ABSOLUTELY NOT, we are okay with it if they give all their time and expertise for free, but it’s downright shameful for them to ask for money”.
Anyway. Dear Cyberpunk 2077: I’ve got one less problem without ya.
I’ll republish here the content of the posts that were taken down, edited to keep the true money-makers and their lawyers happy. An amended mod release will follow later in the day.
But stay tuned!!! Despite everything, I really want to end this on a positive note, so I’ll jump the gun and just release today the new conversion I have been working on, without going through the ordinary testing cycle. Maybe it will be a little rough around the edges, but we’ll take care of that, as we always do ;-)
What game am I talking about? Well,
Gimme a B…
Gimme a G…
Gimme a 3!
Baldur’s Gate 3!!!
See ya later []-D


Paid mods are a whole thing on top. You get stuff like hardcoded incompatibilities just to sabotage other mods, obfuscated code to sabotage compatibility, weird interpersonal spats, and what I can only describe as “Discord development cults.”
But all that’s beside the point. If the publisher sanctions paid mods in some kind of marketplace, okay. But you can’t sneak under their nose then complain when they notice you.