Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has successfully taken down GTA Online cheat site Lunacheats.
As reported by Dexerto, the GTA Online publisher has clamped down on the popular cheaters hub Lunacheats. It’s hoped that this will curb hacking within the game.
As a result, the site is now offline, with only the following statement left behind: “After discussions with Take-Two Interactive, we are immediately ceasing all maintenance, development, and distribution of our cheat menu services.
“We will also be donating our proceeds to a charity designated by Take-Two. We apologize for any and all problems our software has caused to the Grand Theft Auto Online community.”
While many players will use cheats for harmless fun, many also enable users to gain infinite amounts of money – or worse. This, of course, breaks the game fundamentally, making it hard for players who play legitimately to enjoy their experience. Gone are the days of harmlessly spawning a tank in the middle of Vice City using button combinations. Cheating is now a serious issue for publishers.
This isn’t Take-Two’s first takedown rodeo, with the publisher also taking down the cheat site “Elusive” a few years back. Elusive was also hit with a fine of $150,000, so things could be set to get worse for Lunacheats.
Both sites were instructed by Take-Two to donate their proceeds to charity, so at least some good has come from the whole affair.
Of course, taking down cheat sites will only do so much to stop cheating. After all, part of the fun for cheaters is to find new ways to manipulate games.
Other sites will likely emerge from the ashes of their predecessors (and many others already exist). Take-Two could find themselves playing whack-a-mole with potential violators.
Who knows, perhaps making an example of Lunacheats will deter others from wanting to become a destructive force in the city of Los Santos.
Are you sad to see Lunacheats go, or is this a good thing for GTA Online?
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