The modder who goes by Luke Ross has made full VR modes for some of the biggest blockbuster games around. He’s now decided to take them all offline, at least for now. After reportedly trying and failing to get CD Projekt Red to pay him for a full-conversion VR mod for Cyberpunk 2077, Ross was hit earlier this month with a DMCA takedown notice from the Polish RPG maker. The modder has now been hit with another DMCA from the publisher of Ghostrunner, and has decided to suspend his entire Patreon, where access to dozens of other VR mods is locked behind a subscriber paywall, for at least the next month.
“In light of the above facts, I’m being forced to take immediate action. I’m 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,” Ross wrote in a reported email to subscribers last night (via FRVR). “And since I cannot stop people from subscribing without closing down the account altogether, I’m making it clear on the About and Welcome pages that new subscriptions will have the only effect of supporting me and that no access to the 40+ conversions can or will be provided at this time.”
The dramatic move came after Ross reportedly feared losing access to the account entirely after a takedown notice from Ghostrunner publisher 505 Games. “No mention of any terms of service violation this time,” wrote the modder. “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.”
Ross’ frustration with the publishers who own the games he’s modding and the power dynamics of modern DMCA threats on the internet is clear throughout the email, but the modder also tries to address criticisms charging for the mods in the first place. Central to CDPR’s complaint against the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod was that Ross was charging players to access it via a subscription. As with a similar VR mod for Baldur’s Gate 3, the normally pro-mod game maker reiterated that it would be fine with Ross making the creations free and simply allowing users to voluntarily tip instead, as many other modders do.
“People on the web are thirsty for blood because back in the GTA V and RDR 2 era, an article came out stating that I was raising $20,000 a month. Is that ‘reasonable?’” Ross wrote. “Assuming that overall the work I poured into making my software support Cyberpunk, turning it into the “most immersive gaming experience” some people had in their lives, amounted to a few months, say $50,000: is that ‘reasonable’ according to the arbitrary criteria of Cyberpunk‘s publisher? Something tells me it wouldn’t be considered reasonable, despite being a tiny fraction of the many millions they would have to invest for porting CP2077 to VR themselves, and despite the fact that the cost was entirely financed by passionate gamers and none of it was incurred by CD Projekt Red.”
Ross’ thankless crusade hasn’t won over the gaming masses quiet yet. He accused users of trying to pirate the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod even after it was taken down in order to “punish” him for breaking CDPR’s terms of service. “Wouldn’t making his mod free and accepting optional donations make him bulletproof to all claims?” asked one commenter on the VR subreddit where Ross’ latest email was shared. “Guy wants so bad to make some nice cash out of this, and got so upset that he is not even considering alternative ‘business models,’ he just said fuck it.”
