Rockstar Banning Players For Modding GTA V – Singleplayer Included

[Updated on August 3, 2024, to revise formatting and ensure the sourcing is accurate.]

Rockstar has recently made modding Grand Theft Auto V a violation of their terms of service, enforcing a ban on players found to be using mods. This wouldn’t be a surprise for mods affecting the online mode, but it seems that even singleplayer mods can get you banned. To justify the banning of players, Rockstar refers players to the EULA where the following can now be found:

LICENSE CONDITIONS

You agree not to:

[..] reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, display, perform, prepare derivative works based on, or otherwise modify the Software, in whole or in part;

According to the terms of service, unless there is a change in Rockstar’s EULA, the Grand Theft Auto V modding scene, one of the biggest sell-points for the PC version, is not allowed to take off, effectively forcing players to choose between modding their game or the ability to play online. The internet has taken to Steam, where Grand Theft Auto V‘s review count has hit 6K+ negative reviews with no sign of slowing down. 

Given Steam’s mod controversy and Gabe Newell’s statement about the costs of angering the Internet — such as “pissing off the Internet costs you a million bucks in just a couple of days” — we can only hope Rockstar sees its potential mistake and fixes it before it is too late.

Rockstar eventually made the following statement on the official site of Rockstar Games:

“We have always appreciated the creative efforts of the PC modding community and we still fondly remember the awesome zombie invasion mod and original GTA map mod for GTAIV PC among many other classics. To be clear, the modding policy in our license has not changed and is the same as for GTAIV.  Recent updates to GTAV PC had an unintended effect of making unplayable certain single player modifications. This was not intentional, no one has been banned for using single player modifications, and you should not worry about being banned or being relegated to the cheater pool just for using single player PC mods. Our primary focus is on protecting GTA Online against modifications that could give players an unfair advantage, disrupt gameplay, or cause griefing. It also bears mentioning that because game mods are by definition unauthorized, they may be broken by technical updates, cause instability, or affect your game in other unforeseen ways.”

Rockstar Games

It seems the recent bans for singleplayer mods were not intentional and are only temporarily enforced, being reverted in an average of 16 days, as reported by some users. Despite that, until a new system is enforced by Rockstar, it is still highly advised that you remove any mods before heading into GTA Online as to avoid being falsely flagged.