Rockstar Games Does Not Want You to Mod ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’

Some game publishers are only too happy for modders to dig into the inner workings of their games. For such publishers, modders are an invaluable—if sometimes frustrated —resource. They discover and fix bugs, they provide new content that keeps players involved for years after release, and occasionally they band together to create projects that can rival the original game in scope and ambition.

In case you’ve found yourself wondering whether Rockstar Games falls into this category, the company’s new Mod Guidelines —updated earlier this month as Grand Theft Auto VI looms ever larger on the horizon—provide a pretty definitive answer. No. No, Rockstar is not down with the mods.

Some of the guidelines are pretty standard: don’t steal other people’s creations, don’t use Rockstar IP to promote your mods or imply that they’re somehow officially affiliated with the company, don’t do naughty things with multiplayer. Others, however, place pretty stringent restrictions on modders. The item entitled “Respect Our Games,” in particular, seems to put the kibosh on basically any story-based mods—it demands that modders “do not expand or modify Rockstar Games’ official storylines, plots, missions, characters, or other elements of our established continuity.”

Total conversions like Tale of Two Wastelands , which ports Fallout 3 into Fallout: New Vegas to take advantage of the latter’s slightly newer and more capable version of Bethesda’s Gamebryo engine, are also off the table: “Do not make mods that combine maps, locations, characters, storylines, in-game assets, or other IP from one Rockstar Games title into another title.”

In addition to prohibiting mods that promote self-harm, contain pornography, etc., the “Do Not Harm the Creator Community” item also makes one curiously specific demand: “Do not engage in or promote conflict roleplay or military simulations depicting real-world armed organizations.” There’s probably a legal reason for this, but it seems like a curious restriction for a game whose entire franchise involves a whole lot of conflict roleplay with armed organizations that look awfully like real-world police forces.

Finally, there’s the question of paid modding. Rockstar doesn’t rule this out entirely, but it does demand that “you may only monetize your mods via digital storefront providers approved by Rockstar Games and in compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and policies.” Those policies are set out in the game’s Creator Platform License Agreement , which was also updated recently and makes for an interesting read.