Renowned modder removes all VR conversions for Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring following another DMCA takedown: “We’ll always have the memories.”
The modder responsible for the Cyberpunk 2077 VR conversion has taken down all of his mods after facing another DMCA strike, this time targeting the parkour action game Ghostrunner.
Luke Ross, known for creating the R.E.A.L VR mod framework, has developed VR conversion mods for around 40 different titles, including Elden Ring and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. His earlier work also featured mods for GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 until Take-Two Interactive intervened.
Recently, Ross made headlines again when CD Projekt issued a DMCA strike against his Cyberpunk 2077 mod. The company’s vice president of business development, Jan Rosner, noted that the issue stemmed from the mods being behind a Patreon paywall, although they would have been fine with optional donations.
In an email to his subscribers, Ross revealed that 505 Games has taken similar legal action against his Ghostrunner mod. He mentioned, “No mention of any terms of service violation this time. Again, Patreon automatically complied. I don’t blame them; DMCA law is carefully worded to give infinite power to big companies, who only need to write on a slip of paper that they ‘believe’ their copyright has been infringed in order to nuke from the sky anything they don’t like – and to give infinite headaches to creators like me, who instead have the only recourse of going to court, sustaining huge costs to get through the legal process.”
As a result, Ross is “being forced to take immediate action” by “making unavailable all versions of the mods and also all the posts related to the wonderful work we have done here together for years, so that there will be no ground for further claims.” He has also updated his Patreon page to clarify that subscribing will not grant access “to the 40+ conversions.”
He emphasized that making the mod freely available isn’t a straightforward solution, as the DMCA powers granted to large companies and the need for payments or donations for complex projects are unrelated issues. He pointed out that his Rockstar Games mods were “completely free” yet still faced DMCA claims.
“Hopefully we’ll find a way together, in the next few weeks,” Ross added. “But if we can’t, we’ll always have the memories of the wonderful times we spent in those beautiful virtual worlds. Oh, and by the way: if you have existing copies of the mods that you downloaded here before all this drama, you will of course be able to use them indefinitely and without restriction,” as long as the relevant games don’t receive mod-breaking updates in the future.
