Twitch: Rockstar’s enough! GTA Online closes role-playing servers, bans NFTs and Krypos, tightens rules
GTA 5’s online mode, GTA Online, has been booming for years with player-run role-playing servers. This gave the 2013 game a new lease of life on Twitch. But now Rockstar and Take Two are tightening the reins: They are banning NFTs and cryptocurrencies on the role-playing servers, and a rapper has now had to close his server. Rockstar apparently found it too commercial.
That’s the ban: On November 18th, Rockstar issued new rules for roleplay servers. They say they appreciate and support the creativity of the people on these servers and their passion. One hopes that the servers will be fine for years to come (via rock star).
But they now prohibit the “commercial exploitation” of the RP servers, which include
- a ban on loot boxes for real-money currency
- the sale of cryptocurrencies
- generating revenue through promotional deals
- the use of crypto-currencies or crypto-assets (e.g. NFTs)
Servers are also prohibited from misusing Rockstar’s intellectual property or interfering with the official servers with role-playing servers.
Roleplaying servers in GTA Online are essentially sandbox MMOs, in which players play a character and their life story, communicating and interacting with other players using proximity chat. This has proven to be a way for Twitch streamers in particular to entertain their viewers. This has made GTA the second biggest game on Twitch after League of Legends.
Rockstar and Take-Two are shutting down servers
Why is this change coming now? Rapper “Lil Durk” has opened a GTA RPG server called Trenches. Items could be bought there via a website. So there was obviously a clear business intention behind it.
However, according to a statement from the server on November 20, Rockstar and Take-Two have asked the server to close. The server complied with the request.
Roleplay servers make GTA 5 the second biggest game on Twitch, but no Wild West
What’s behind it? These role-playing servers in GTA Online are extremely popular worldwide and have made the 9-year-old GTA 5 the new hit game on Twitch in recent years. Rockstar doesn’t seem to mind either.
But now they are issuing clear rules so that money is not made on this role-playing server with things that Rockstar itself does not approve of.
Twitch streamer throws down GTA 5 RP as fake job becomes real: “It’s brutal”
Such blatant “commercial things” that are to the detriment of the players apparently want to be clearly prevented so that other people don’t do business with GTA Online.
Even Rockstar and Take-Two make a fortune from GTA Online by selling premium currency.
In any case, GTA and influencers quickly involve a lot of money, also in Germany:
German Twitch streamer rejects “mentally ill” GTA 5 deal over 600,000 euros – “I don’t feel anything”
Reference-mein-mmo.de