Take-Two files lawsuit against Red Dead Redemption PC modder

The original Red Dead Redemption never made its way over to PC but there was a fan-project attempting to make that happen. The Red Dead Redemption: Damned Enhancement Project aimed to not only overhaul the game’s visuals, but get the game running on PC via an emulator. Unfortunately, due to cease and desist requests from Take-Two, the project was cancelled back in September. The story doesn't end there though, as now, a full lawsuit has been filed against the project's creator.

The person behind the project is known as ‘DamnedDev' online. After being contacted by Take-Two and enduring ‘shady stuff' like private investigators and family members being contacted, the Red Dead Redemption: Damned Enhancement Project was shelved. Since then, as reported by TorrentFreak, Take-Two has filed a full lawsuit against a man named Johnathan Wyckoff and ten ‘John Does', whose identities remain unknown for the time being.

In the filing, Take-Two states that it “brings this action to maintain control over its world-famous video games in the face of Wyckoff's publicly stated intent to distribute unauthorised software files that would dramatically change the content of Take-Two's video games”.

“Those unauthorised changes include but are not limited to importing the entire game map of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption into the 2018 game Red Dead Redemption II, enhancing graphics and visuals in Take-Two’s Red Dead Redemption game, and allowing players to play an enhanced version of the game on personal computer (‘PCs’), a platform for which Take-Two itself has not yet released the Read Dead Redemption game.”

By doing this, the people named in the suit are accused of breaching Take-Two's intellectual property rights and user license agreements. There are two key mods that Take-Two has issues with, one of them being the Red Dead Redemption: Damned Enhancement Project, which would use emulation and modifications to get Red Dead Redemption 1 running on PC. The second issue is the ‘RDRII Project', which aimed to port the full Red Dead Redemption 1 map into the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2.

While Take-Two doesn't necessarily intend to release an official PC version of Red Dead Redemption, or a future DLC that adds the first game's map to the new game, these mods would ‘destroy the market' for an official version from Take-Two.

We will have to wait and see what happens next but for now, it is safe to assume that both planned mods are now cancelled for good and won't be picked up again.

KitGuru Says: Take-Two is one of the few publishers that will often go after modders over ‘remakes' or projects that completely overhaul existing games. There is the chance that someone else will pick up these mod ideas down the line, but given Take-Two's legal habits, we wouldn't recommend it.

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