The creator of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod CD Projekt lately hit with a DMCA strike has mentioned folks at the moment are pirating it to “punish” him for breaking the developer’s phrases of service.
Luke Ross, creator of the R.E.A.L. VR mods for video games equivalent to Elden Ring, Days Gone, and Far Cry, reportedly earns $20,000 a month by means of Patreon, which acts as a paywall for his work.
Ross prolonged his VR conversion framework to assist Cyberpunk 2077 in February 2022. Just a few months later, he contacted CD Projekt to ask if the Polish studio was fascinated by turning the mod into an official port. It declined, Ross advised IGN.
Then, on January 9, 2026, Patreon alerted Ross to CD Projekt’s DMCA discover for the removing of the mod, which it had already taken down. “I had completely no say within the matter, as a result of as is the norm in these circumstances (a minimum of for Patreon), the Patreon crew had already complied with the request and brought down my mod of their very own initiative, making it inaccessible,” Ross mentioned.
Ross then bought in contact with CD Projekt to, as he put it, “negotiate a mutually useful resolution.” CD Projekt then replied to say Ross wanted to adjust to its phrases of service. “No negotiation, no feedback on my proposals, no curiosity as an illustration in realizing what number of of their customers can be affected by the sudden removing.”
The scenario hit the headlines this week when Jan Rosner, VP, Enterprise Growth at CD Projekt Crimson, tweeted to say the corporate issued the DMCA strike as a result of Cyberpunk VR was a paid mod, which violates its fan content material tips.
“We by no means enable monetization of our IP with out our direct permission and/or an settlement in place,” Rosner mentioned. “We have been in contact with Luke final week and knowledgeable him that he must make it free for everybody (with non-compulsory donations) or take away it.
“We’re huge followers of mods to our video games — among the work out there was nothing in need of wonderful, together with Luke’s mod for Cyberpunk 2077. We’d be completely satisfied to see it return as a free launch. Nonetheless, making a revenue from our IP, in any kind, all the time requires permission from CD Projekt Crimson.”
Ross responded to Rosner’s tweet to take concern along with his work being characterised as fan content material. Reasonably, Ross insisted, it’s impartial software program and thus doesn’t infringe on CD Projekt’s IP rights.
“I am sorry however I do not imagine you’re inside your rights in demanding that my software program must be free,” Ross mentioned. “It’s not ‘spinoff work’ or ‘fan content material’: it helps numerous video games which have been constructed upon totally different engines, and it comprises completely zero code or property out of your IP. Saying that it infringes your IP rights is equal to sustaining for instance that RivaTuner violates recreation publishers’ copyrights as a result of it intercepts the pictures the sport is drawing on display and it processes them as a way to overlay its statistics.”
IGN adopted as much as ask Ross if he has plans to make the Cyberpunk VR mod free, thus complying with CD Projekt’s phrases of service. Responding, Ross mentioned that whereas he wouldn’t rule out doing so, it could be lots of work.
“I don’t rule out releasing the mod free for everybody,” he mentioned. “However it could take time, as a result of my software program helps 40+ video games and varied fully totally different engines, which makes making a model that particularly helps solely Cyberpunk 2077 a non-trivial process. Additionally, the individuals who have voluntarily given their cash to me as a way to assist my growth efforts for the framework won’t be completely satisfied about seeing the mod being given away abruptly to everybody simply because I have been bullied into it.”
At this level, Ross mentioned that making the mod free had grow to be a moot level as a result of folks have been now pirating it — and publishing abusive feedback directed at him.
“Anyway, it is sort of grow to be a moot level, as a result of following to the surprising DMCA strike, after the mod was forcibly faraway from my Patreon, folks afraid of dropping VR assist for his or her favourite video games have began pirating and illegally exchanging the mod all around the Web, openly saying that since I used to be not complying with CDPR’s ToS, my work is now truthful recreation and I must be punished by having it stolen. So in a way CDPR already bought what they needed,” he mentioned.
The next is a snippet of the response to the DMCA strike and Ross’ feedback about it.
“Ehhh, with out the sport the mod is ineffective. I’m glad some folks have discovered methods to pirate his shitty mods, he deserves it,” one individual mentioned on social media.
“I’m at present engaged on transferring this man’s mod recordsdata to my PC. I’ll look by means of and do some tweaking, after which I’ll launch his VR mod for Cyberpunk without cost,” mentioned one other.
“What actually bugs me is that as an alternative of simply releasing it without cost and persevering with growth with donations, which Take-Two already permits and which might virtually positively nonetheless usher in the identical cash from the VR neighborhood, he selected to kill the mod completely as soon as he couldn’t promote it anymore,” added one other. “That’s the half I don’t respect. He already made his cash, he had choices, and he nonetheless selected the nuclear one. Finish result’s gamers lose the one actual Cyberpunk VR expertise, VR modding takes one other hit, and publishers get painted as villains once more regardless that this end result was sort of apparent.”
The next is a remark posted on Ross’ Patreon web page:
“Upon studying extra about this case: they gave you a approach to preserve it alive, and also you determined to be a grasping little bish about it so I am cancelling my Patreon subscription to you and giving all of your mods to anybody I do know without cost any longer (additionally there’s locations on-line to search out all of your mods instantly after launch without cost, I used to be selecting to pay you, however now you are being a dickhead so I am going to simply steal your mods any longer and inform everybody the place to search out them).
“You’ve got made 20k a month for years, for modding these video games — they’re asking you to make ONE OF THEM free — for a recreation which is basically finished updating and can be model locked.
“Actually gross by CD Undertaking Crimson, and by you — exhibits the place your priorities are you grasping little proud man.”
It appears unlikely that CD Projekt will again down right here, which leaves Ross with a choice to make: ditch the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for good, or launch it without cost, as CD Projekt requests.
Ross restated to IGN that he’s open to discovering “artistic options,” and that his work to make AAA video games playable in VR fills a void, however he has but to substantiate plans to launch the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod without cost.
“I don’t modify the content material of the video games, or attempt to promote an expertise which is in competitors with what the IP creators are producing,” he continued. “To play in VR you all the time must personal the unique recreation, and the one factor that modifications is that the expertise is extra immersive, visceral and memorable, which may solely profit the IP homeowners. In the long run, when avid gamers are enjoying for instance Cyberpunk in VR, they aren’t enjoying my mod. They’re enjoying Cyberpunk, and loving it. How this might ever damage the writer and set off free-or-kill reactions nonetheless baffles me.”
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].