Take-Two Interactive updated the "legal enforcement policy" for its uber-popular online game, Grand Theft Auto Online, last week. Although it's more legal mumbo jumbo, the main takeaway is that GTA Online's publisher is now specifically banning NFTs and cryptocurrency in the game.
It's an open secret that players have used GTA Online's role-playing servers as a hub to sell everything from sponsorship deals to licensed music and, most recently, NFTs.
The ban comes after a press release announced that a rapper going by the name "Lil Durk" will release a "Trenches Pass" that gives fans access to a loot box-like NFT offering with exclusive access to a GTA Online roleplayer server.
Without going too much into the specifics of such situations, this is a common problem for games that let players establish servers. Minecraft, in particular, battled this for years before specifically banning blockchain and NFTs from the game.
It appears Take-Two saw fans were starting to wonder if Rockstar condoned NFTs and cryptocurrency by letting it go on sale on GTA servers, so it has decided to dissociate itself from the entire thing.
Don't worry. The larger GTA roleplay community remains unaffected by the update. Role-playing servers will continue to exist as is, with the update describing them as "an extension of the rich array of community-created experiences within Grand Theft Auto that we hope will continue to thrive in a safe and friendly way for many years to come." The update aims to thwart those trying to piggyback off of GTA Online's success and use it to legitimize something that Rockstar and Take-Two don't want to support.
It only makes sense for Rockstar to protect GTA Online as it's still, by extension, together with Grand Theft Auto 5, one of the best-selling video games of all time that rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.
In case you didn't realize, the update also affects Red Dead Online and the small handful of people still playing it.
Speaking of GTA Online, Rockstar reportedly sent out a survey hinting at the addition of fast-travel to the game in the future.
