GTA Online cheating tools 'Force Hax' and 'Menyoo' shut down by Take-Two Interactive (Updated)
The for-pay cheat menus for GTA Online close their doors and say they will donate proceeds to charity.
Update: Another GTA Online cheat menu and trainer, called 'Menyoo', has also shuttered, its website now only displaying a message similar to the one found on Force Hax's website, though this one states the charity has been specifically determined by Take-Two Interactive:
"After discussions with Take-Two Interactive, effective immediately we are ceasing all maintenance, development and distribution of the Menyoo cheat menu services. We will be donating our proceeds to a charity designated by Take-Two. We apologize for any and all problems Menyoo has caused to the Grand Theft Auto Online community."
Menyoo was (and appears to still be) usable in singleplayer mode for free. For use online, however, it required players to purchase it.
Original story: This past week we reported that modding tool OpenIV, which has been used for years to create and play singleplayer mods for Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5, was shutting down following the developers receiving a legal notice from Take-Two Interactive. It now appears OpenIV isn't the only tool targeted by GTA's publisher.
While the developers of OpenIV took measures to insure that its modding tools couldn't be used in GTA Online, only in singleplayer, there are other mod tools and menus that can be used to cheat and grief in GTA 5's multiplayer mode. 'Force Hax', a subscription-based cheat and mod menu for GTA Online, is one such tool—or at least it was. Force Hax has closed after being contacted by Take-Two.
The Force Hax site, which billed itself as 'The Dark Side of GTAV PC Modding' and boasted it was an 'Undetected GTAV Modmenu for PC' that 'Bypasses Latest Rockstar Anti-Cheat' offered its services to paying customers for $6.99 a week, $15.99 a month, or $31.99 for three months. The site has been taken down and now only displays the following message:
"After discussions with Take-Two Interactive, effective immediately we are ceasing all maintenance, development and distribution of the Force Hax cheat menu services. We will be donating our proceeds to charity and we apologize for any and all problems Force Hax services have cause to the Grand Theft Auto Online community."
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A YouTube video from May of the Force Hax mod menu in action shows an Online player generating sacks of cash, while a warning "Do not bank the money. Keep it as cash or you will get banned" appears on screen. The video also shows the player using other cheats and griefs, like teleporting other players to their location, spawning cars and weapons, enabling god and noclip mode, teleporting around the map, and insta-killing other players remotely.
Meanwhile, in the wake of singleplayer modding suite OpenIV's shutdown, reviews of GTA 5 on Steam have plummeted to 'Overwhemingly Negative' and a petition at change.org to 'Save OpenIV' has received over 35,000 signatures (up from 20,000 just yesterday).
I don't expect a petition to appear in support of bringing back the Force Hax griefing tools, considering how much misery it no doubt caused the non-cheating players of GTA Online. It also hasn't been revealed which charity the makers of Force Hax will be donating their proceeds too, or how much they plan to donate.
Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.
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