Crytek has written a letter to a modder, demanding that he takes down his Crysis Remastered Trilogy photo mode mods. The letter states that Crytek doesn't allow mods for any of the games in the trilogy under its EULA, and that there are no additional license agreements for Crysis Remastered Trilogy mods either.
What is Crytek's problem with these Crysis Remastered Trilogy photo mode mods?
Modder Frans Bouma posted the letter he received from Crytek to his Twitter page. In the letter, Crytek says the "terms of our EULA" prohibit users from creating Crysis Remastered Trilogy mods, no matter what they might contain. Crytek also says it does not "offer additional license agreements" for modding any of the Crysis Remastered Trilogy games either. As a result, Crytek tells Bouma that he has to remove the offending mods from his Patreon page, as well as anywhere else they might appear.
Understandably, Bouma expresses his dismay at Crytek's decision. He says that he doesn't distribute any game assets himself, and that all of his mods are based on "binaries compiled from my own code". According to Bouma, he's made photo mode mods for many other games, and developers are usually happy for them to exist because they constitute "free advertising". Bouma says if he has to pull his Crysis 2 and 3 Remastered mods, he will, but he's never going to create a photo mode mod for any Crytek game again. Sorry, photo mode fans.
Publishers and modders don't always get along
Unfortunately, this sort of thing isn't unheard of in the gaming world. Publishers like Take-Two are pretty aggressive when it comes to taking down fan mods of their work. In Take-Two's case, though, they took down mods intended to port classic Grand Theft Auto content into modern games, which was likely done in order to protect their own then-forthcoming Grand Theft Auto Trilogy (although in retrospect, one suspects they shouldn't have bothered). Crysis' decision to axe a mod that was only ever going to make their games look better is somewhat puzzling from a PR perspective, if not legally.
It's unlikely that Crytek will have a change of heart and allow Bouma to reinstate his Crysis Remastered Trilogy photo mode mods, so if you were hoping for a photo mode in the games, you're out of luck, unfortunately. Still, you can buy Crysis Remastered Trilogy for PC and consoles right now. Be sure to check out our review of the collection if you're still on the fence about picking these PC-melting shooters up.
How do you feel about Crytek telling Bouma to get rid of his Crysis Remastered Trilogy photo mode mods? Let us know in the comments below!
