Rockstar is a video game developer and publisher best known for game series such as the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series and the Red Dead Redemption series, amongst others. They are also famous, or rather infamous, for cracking down on those in the gaming community who take it upon themselves to mod or even pirate their games. However, a new report from prominent gaming YouTuber Vadim M claims that Rockstar themselves rely upon and to an extent even depend upon pirated copies of their own games.
How did Rockstar re–release some of their games?
In a video that is just under an hour long, YouTuber Vadim M claims that Rockstar has been selling cracked versions of their own games such as Midnight Club 2, Manhunt, and Max Payne 2 on Steam. A cracked game essentially means that it has been pirated and that its digital rights management (DRM) system, which is supposed to prevent piracy, has been disabled thus allowing piracy.
As per Vadim M’s claim, an old hacking group called Razor 1911 that began in 1085, hacked a Rockstar game called Manhunt so well that Rockstar themselves used that cracked version of the game when they released it on Steam in 2008. This, though, was discovered in 2010 in the form of the piracy group’s tags and the same thing happened with Max Payne 2 in the same year, which prompted Rockstar to release updates to hide the tracks in both games.
Game developer and modder Silent, in response to the video by Vadim M, decided to check the game Midnight Club II which isn’t on Steam anymore, and found the same Razor 1911 piracy group tags in that game. Silent claimed that the pirated version of the game being sold on Steam is why it wasn’t compatible with Windows Vista.
How did these Rockstar re–releases impact players?
These claims by YouTuber Vadim M, if true, have ironically inconvenienced gamers who have bought certain Rockstar through legitimate means on Steam, as it is the pirated version being sold there. That in turn causes the game to see if the code has been tampered with, which it has naturally been since it’s pirated, and that makes games like Manhunt, for example, nearly impossible to play.
Also read: Bad News for Rockstar: Red Dead Redemption 3, GTA 6 Gets Nightmare Update
Instances from within Manhunt include each door in the game locking down permanently when a single one is opened, and picking up the ever-important health items makes the game crash. Even if players somehow make it through all this, the game simply stops responding to commands after fifteen minutes.
Vadim M’s claims in his video have shown that the entire situation has backfired spectacularly for Rockstar if true.
Source: Techspot, Gamesradar
