‘Cyberpunk 2077’ VR Mod Taken Down Following Legal Complaint, But There May Still Be Hope

By
Scott Hayden
-
29

Luke Ross, the prolific VR modder, has been forced to remove his popular Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod, citing legal concerns from CD PROJEKT.

The News

Ross released word via his Patreon on Saturday that Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt had issued a DMCA takedown notice for the removal of the game’s unofficial VR mod—just one of many ‘REAL VR’ mods from Ross, which include Hogwarts Legacy, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Elden Ring, and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

And it seems to boil down to Ross having placed the VR mod behind a Patreon paywall—essentially selling access to it, CD Projekt maintains.

“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,” Ross says, comparing proceedings to a similar takedown by Take Two Interactive. “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,” Ross says.

CD Projekt states in its ‘Fan Guidelines’ however that content created by the community should have “[n]o commercial usage,” making it fairly clear where Ross ran afoul.

“We’d love for your fan content to be created by fans, for fans. Therefore, you cannot do anything with our games for any commercial purpose, unless explicitly permitted otherwise below (e.g. see section 3 about videos and streams). We’re happy for you to accept reasonable donations in connection with your fan content, but you’re not allowed to make people pay for it or have it behind any sort of paywall (e.g. don’t make content only available to paid subscribers).”

Still, there may be a way for CD Projekt to release an official VR version. Flat2VR Studios, the studio behind VR ports such as Trombone Champ, Half-Life 2 VR and Surviving Mars: Pioneer, has propositioned CR Project for its own officially sanctioned version.

Check out Cas & Chary’s hands-on with the mod below:

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My Take

It’s not a cautionary tale just yet, but it takes just one overzealous publisher to really ruin a VR modder hoping to monetize. While it doesn’t seem to be Luke Ross’ case with either Take Two or CD Project, the possibility of invoking the wrath of a corporate legal department is a real risk, which could include more than just a DMCA takedown.

Depending on how litigious a company is, they could go as far as prying into a modder’s revenue to see how much money they made off the mod’s release, and demanding statutory damages as a result. Although the mod has been up since 2022, Ross seems to have complied with takedown notice quickly, which has probably kept him safe from facing those sorts of actions.

That said, I have my doubts we’ll ever see an official VR version. I love the idea of Flat2VR Studios giving Cyberpunk 2077 the VR treatment, but it does have the potential to cause community backlash.

If it’s a VR port, some users may ask: “why would I buy a VR version of the game I already own?” Or, provided VR support becomes a paid add-on to the game: “why would I buy VR support that I already paid for?” Either way, its not a good look for a company to so clearly money grub.

As it is, I think the ship has sailed on Ross making the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod free, which means either Flat2VR picks it up, or a third party creates their own free VR mod. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Arturs Gerskovics

    I'd pay full game price again if they make official VR!

    • Arno van Wingerde

      You might and I bet a number of VR users may, but if that is 2% of the existing user base, is that enough to be worth it for the company. After all, it is not just a mod, they must also fix bugs, adapt it for newer content and changes to the 2D game… it may not be worth it!

    • Tonanamous

      In VR, it would go very well with my Steam Deckard Headset (No I will not refer to it by its lame name)

  • Arno van Wingerde

    Scott, I typically like the reporting on VR here, but this article seems a bit one-sided. The modder asks $9.- per Monat to be able to install a mod. In principle, at this time, the mod keeps working if you quit Patreon, but that might change… and every time you need a new version it is another $9.-
    Stay member for a year and you paid $108.- more than for the game itself.
    So whereas I like the fact that people add VR mods and that the publisher allows this, I can see they draw a line for priced options, as they allow donations as well.

    • Dragon Marble

      Now that the mod is taken down, you can't even get support or refund if it stops working. Luke Ross's approach is always fraught with legal/ethical problems.

      On the other hand, for an official port, of course people should pay. So I don't understand the "money grub" argument at the end of the article either.

      • Joseph Kerr

        He can do what most modders do, release the mod for free and accept donations. Instead he acts like a corpo, and he got called out in it and did the corpo. At the end of the day he isn't doing this for the community, for the experience, for the love of the game, for any of that, he's doing it for money, pure and simple. CDPR allows free mods and even let's their modders accept donations, what they don't want is people using their art and their game to get people stuck in a monthly microtransaction. This dude has essentially made his own seasonal battle pass using a different companies work. He's a corpo through and through

    • Peter

      It's not just a CP2077 mod though. Luke adds new games constantly. There's about 40 games now supported by his mod. $9 a month is steal for making so many games VR capable. He's made basically the only AAA VR games – CP2077, The last of us 1 and 2, red dead 2 etc. It's only fair he gets paid for his outstanding work

      • dextrovix

        Well, he should adopt Praydog's donation methodology then, only then his mod wouldn't have to be taken down.

      • Joseph Kerr

        Congrats you've signed up for the most ridiculous battle pass in gaming lol

  • JanO

    To CDPR: Do your thing and then, hands-off!
    This requires a totally legit copy of your game, WTF?

    I never cared for Ross' mods, but to me this is the same as a movie studio shutting a media player software down. It plays your media on a new platform… Get over it or do it better.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Again, CDPR is not trying to stop mods, and not even trying to stop modders from making money from it, as long as users offer to do so voluntarily to help with the effort. The sole thing they complained about is the modder FORCING users to pay, because this turns the mod into a commercial service, which was always prohibited by their EULA.

      A lot of software has limitations for commercial use. For example you weren't allowed to use a Quest in a business setting for years, and after the introduction of their recently killed business program you were only allowed to do so if you bought the technical identical business version at twice the price, with the sole difference being the license. Not sure if it is still in there, but in the past the Windows EULA explicitly prohibited using it to run a nuclear power plant, most likely to never get drawn into the astronomical regress demands in case of a nuclear accident.

      Companies can absolutely define under which circumstances their software is used, and that includes what tool you can use with it. And technically Ross's mod requires a copy of CD Project's game to function, without them ever having given permission to sell such an add-on, and legally he cannot simply claim that it is the users breaking CD Projects license agreement.

      Running an aim assist tool with your totally legit copy of your game will get you banned, and the company offering that aim assist tool will get a much less friendly DCMA takedown request than Ross got from CD Project, referring to their license that explicitly forbid offering mods as a paid-only service. And they left the door open for him to keep working on the mod and still make money by making it available for free but stating that new updates would only be released if a certain monthly threshold is met on Patreon, because this way it would again be up to the users to decide to support the developer. He decided to drop the project instead.

    • Joseph Kerr

      The dude is charging a monthly subscription, a live service battle pass basically, to profit off of CDPR's work, and small patch they to do can break his mod and he can just say tough, that $500 you've spent over the last four years is gone, don't like it, unsubscribe. They didn't tell him he has to take it down, they didn't tell him he can't accept donations, they told him he can't charge a price, a monthly subscription no less, to use this mod. He needs to get over it and stop nickel and diming the community

  • psuedonymous

    When faced with the choice between complying with the ToS and making his mod free, or taking his toys and going home, he chose the latter.

    • geronimo

      If he made it free he would be expected to keep it updated, but now there's no more money in it. He should just open source it and let somebody post it on Nexus if he is done with it.

      • Joseph Kerr

        Not at all how free mods work. It having paid, requiring a monthly subscription to it no less, is what would make people expect it to be constantly updated

  • Jay Hovah

    In my knowledge of IP rights and consumer protection, I agree with CDPR. It's unregulated completely. Why defense does a mods costumer have to get a refund? Mods aren't needed, imo that's a developer building a portfolio to get a leg up when trying to get an industry job. Does the modder share profits with the company whose assets are manipulated?

    Modding isn't employment, it's a hobby. One update can break a mod you paid for forever if they don't update it. The same people complain about not owning games and don't see the similarities?

    • JanO

      Please Google "VHS", "DVD" and "Media player" to get some context about the freedoms consumers usually have over media content they possess.

      • Jay Hovah

        Thats irrelevant to charging money to manipulate the end product. There’s no argument you can mod. But charging money for a mod on a video game applies to what vhs, DVD or media player.
        Seriously, taking your examples, YOU show Me where the people are protected to SELL fan edits of Twin Peaks or Blade Runner?

        • JanO

          All I'm saying is I think this is short sighted…

          Back in the end of the 90's, when anyone tried to play Bladerunner on a "personal computer", he was flagged as the anti-christ of those days.

          Look at things now.

          Furthermore, CDPR having the balls to try and dictate what can /can't be done and how is the same misguided power trip the movie industry had back in the day.

          If they want this to go away, they can just do it better.

          It's not like its harming sales.

          Absolutely no one that goes through all the hoops required just to get the mod and to make it work is dumb enough not to know the unpredictable and totally unofficial nature of Ross' product.

          How's that different from previous products like VorpX ?

          How's that different from the many softwares that convert 2D movies to 3D?

          ???

          Now, I've never used Ross' mods, but if they are distributed in such a way that they do not contain any of CDPR's files or code, then I don't see a difference between this and "movie-type" media VS any software media player.

          Time will tell.

          • Joseph Kerr

            They are literally saying hey you don't get to make money off of our customers and our work with your monthly battle pass that you may end support for at any time, upsetting our customers. CDPR has literally hired modders before. This guy is charging people over a hundred dollars a year with his subscription just to play this game in VR, he's taking advantage of CDPR's customers with his unofficial product, hoping they sign up for his patreon and forget about it, he's taking one of the worst things about modern gaming and used it to ruin modding. I hope more companies shut down his battle passes.

            there is nothing stopping him from releasing his mod for free and accepting donations except his own corpo greed

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            TL:DR: It's much more complicated than just greed, with most users of free software being "greedy" themselves, never donating anything to support projects they massively benefit from, a big part of the problem.

            While I agree overall, the reality is that very few people support these projects on Patreon. If there is a way to get it free, most people will ignore any pleas to support the developers. That doesn't give Ross the right to put his Cyberpunk VR mod effectively behind a paywall when CDPR's license explicitly prohibits this, but I can at least understand why he doesn't just gladly switch to a "free plus voluntary donations" model.

            And in a way his success proves that his approach was right, making him a lot of money for what is no doubt also a lot of work to get more than 40 games to run in VR, and keep them running, providing tons of value to the VR community desperate for more AAA content. He explains this whole background on his Patreon page. I very much prefer Praydog counting on voluntary donations for UEVR, but know from many open source projects that this is in no way a reliable way to pay for development.

            IMHO it is okay for CDPR to ask him to take the mod down simply because this broke their license. It is also okay for him to ask people for money for his work, even if it also relies on the work of others like CDPR. And you can still get away with a one time payment and then not updating the games to prevent the mod from breaking and you having to subscribe for another month.

            If you aren't willing to mow a strangers lawn for free just because he demands it, neither should Ross be expected to provide mods for free just because VR users want them. He could chose to, and it is sad that he dropped Cyberpunk support instead of trying to find a way that would work for both him and CDPR, but in the end it is his time. And the fact that there aren't a hundred other Cyberpunk VR mods out there to replace his hints that there is indeed a lot of work involved, and that very few people are willing/can afford to do this for free, or just counting on voluntary donations.

          • Joseph Kerr

            I mean I’ve but tried Ross’s mod, but it’s dead easy to get this game running in 3d and do some simple head tracking to mouse input already. As it is with a lot of other games. Not really sure how much extra work he put in beyond that, since like I said I haven’t used it

            I honestly wouldn’t expect that this is someone that is at all difficult for him to do which is how he supports such a large swathe of games.

            It would honestly even be very easy for him to code something in so that it does break every single time even the tiniest of patches is updated in order to force people to stay subscribed.

            Poor example, modding is a hobby. It’s something that should be done out of love for the game and the community. Such A corpo mindset in your reply

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            Again, if it was that easy, someone else annoyed by the mod being locked behind a paywall would have went and released a free version supported only by donations. Just because you believe it must be easy does not mean it actually is, and the number of available mods hints that you underestimate the effort. Or maybe you just like to mention the word corpo a lot.

  • This guy makes a quarter million dollars a year from his Patreon alone. He's not a little guy.

  • Joseph Kerr

    So in other words, he was in no way forced to take it down, but chose to act like a money hungry corpo and is now screaming "nuh uh they did it"

  • Herbert Werters

    Luke Ross should have released the Cyberpunk mod separately and offered it for free as an advertising tool. That would have been much more beneficial for him. Something he can no longer give away and then hope that it will make more people curious about the other mods.

    I don't think it's very cool that you have to buy the mods, but I've had a lot of really good moments with them. If the studios don't do it, then so be it. If the modders want money for their time (just like companies do), then I can and must turn a blind eye. I think we wouldn't have this abundance of good mods otherwise.

    Incidentally, I wouldn't have played many of these games without these mods.

    I understand the problem, though. It's just that the VR mod niche is so irrelevant that I find the steps taken by Take Two and now CDPR really excessive. Let's have some fun or make our own VR option!

  • trmn8r

    Paywalling mods to a game that isn't yours is the real "money grub" here. Modding is a labor of love and often a stepping stone to become your own developer. See HL Alyx Gunman Contracts mod to now, releasing their own stand-alone version of the game so they are able to make money. This is not even creating new content for the game but adding VR features. CDPR is correct here.

  • FRISH

    It's so annoying that so many people take the side of the billionaire corporations because "muh ToS". They take it down coz he's making money from his labour, but are they willing to implement VR themselves. No because it's not worth the labour costs. Fantastic…

    I don't like it being locked behind a subscription, but the thing is what is the alternative? Demanding he create and update the mods indefinitely for free is a big ask. I would love if someone did that, but if no-one is willing to do it then shutting down the mod just punishes people who want to be more immersed in the game.

    With the meta shutdowns and rockstar also shutting down the gta vr mod, it's a sad time for VR.

  • Oxi

    I think it's fine to paywall mods, and if his mod doesn't use any of their copyrighted work they shouldn't be able to take it down.

    I think Flat2VR's offer is kind of laughable though, why would a massive AAA developer still making this game even remotely consider an offer like this from a small team in a niche industry?