Could it be the end of FiveM before GTA 6? According to an extremely in-depth document the popular platform that enables things like GTA RP is in crisis since Rockstar Games‘ purchase of it and the team that created it.
Late on Monday, a website called fivem.team was revealed and houses an very, very long timeline and list of huge issues taking place within FiveM. This document alleges many problems taking place at FiveM and Rockstar Games. In this unprecedented report, many pieces of evidence are shared in the form of chat logs. Furthermore, many other well-known community members such have backed up these claims.
Behind the friendly, smiling, snail mascot of FiveM – you’ll find many dark secrets.
Embezzlement. Fraud. Corporate Espionage. Leaks. Favoritism. Corruption. Blackmail. Harassment. Conflicts of Interest. Lies. Stolen Valor. Bribes. Slander. Manipulation. Sabotage. Laziness. Greed. Envy. Wrath. Pride.
This is the story of FiveM. From its humble origins as a solo-developed modding project, to its rise as one of the most successful multiplayer games today.
– FiveM.team
We saw GTA community site GTA Focal first put out a report in August revealing some of this information. Plus, the creator of FiveM NTA had posted on social media not everything was all it seemed previously too. So this is not all new to those who have been around the FiveM community this past year or so.
The team behind FiveM, Cfx,re, were purchased in August 2023 by Rockstar Games for an undisclosed sum. This development both excited and worried fans. It made modding far more accepted and opened up possibilities for things like GTA RP in GTA 6 on console. However, those already deep into the modding scene had feelings the platform and community would go downhill now it is corporately owned.
The Exposing of FiveM
From the start, Take-Two Interactive took issue with FiveM and its creator NTA. They banned their accounts, permanently, from all Rockstar Games titles. This included any future accounts. This was followed by private investigators turning up to their house and legal proceedings.
Court saw NTA banned from working on anything related to Take-Two going forward. However, community members kept the dream alive and NTA used fake accounts to evade Take-Two. Since then, FiveM flourished and became the sensation it is today.
Fast forward to the acquisition situation. The document claims Rockstar’s first contact with Cfx.re over a possible buyout took place in October 2022. These discussions did not feature FiveM’s creator NTA. It was someone who worked at FiveM called Groot. A group called Groot Gang started up and looked to take over.
Despite initially being upset over this, NTA does decide to go through with selling Cfx.re and FiveM to Rockstar. Meanwhile Groot was seemingly altering the purchase deal terms without NTA knowing. Plus, NTA’s identity was revealed to Rockstar. The courts had already decided she could not work on anything owned by Take-Two.
Rockstar Takes Over
In the end, Cfx.re was sold to Rockstar and NTA was cut a bad deal, some would say. The document claimed she earned around 20 months of what FiveM was making in exchange for everything they had built. In a bid to win back friendship, NTA paid various Groot Gang members millions of euros. Whilst the feeling among Cfx.re was “cautiously optimistic”, things appear to have turned sour fast.
Groot Gang then went to Rockstar to reportedly get NTA suspended all whilst apparently lying to Rockstar about their work with FiveM. At the time of the acquisition, Rockstar had an employee with the job title: Director of Strategy. He has since become the company’s Senior Director of the Creator Platform and is now in charge of FiveM it seems. This employee is said to have given these Groot Gang members senior roles at Rockstar.
GTA RP Servers Targeted
Following the Rockstar buyout, Cfx.re issued a new Platform License Agreement featuring clauses for copyright as many servers were using real world brands for cars and such. We reported on this back in 2023. Below is a quote from Cfx.re.
“We cannot allow custom assets or mods that infringe third-party intellectual property (IP). Real-world brands, unique vehicle designs, and 3D software models are generally protectable under trademark or copyright. If you use a real-world car model pulled from another game without permission, that could result in claims against your server by both the car company (brand, logo, car design) or the game developer (3D model).” – Cfx.re
However, some servers were seemingly targeted with different rule application by the Rockstar Director of Strategy and Groot Gang within Rockstar. Nex, owner of the popular RSM project, revealed “special treatment” was given to some popular servers. Example given were NoPixel and Complexo, servers used by many popular streamers. Whilst RSM were pushed to remove copyrighted vehicles, NoPixel and Complexo were still actively using copyrighted material.
Complexo was even working with Rockstar officially with a public event and posts from Rockstar which we reported on here. The document outlines how copyrighted vehicles were visible during Rockstar’s event with this server. So Rockstar were publicly celebrating a server that violates their own Terms of Service, basically. There are also examples of scams, stolen assets being resold among many other troublesome behaviour that has been left alone.
FiveM Is Dead? Long Live ROME?
Last year, GTA Focal spoke with ex-FiveM staffers who claimed a FiveM killer was being made internally at Rockstar before the company bought Cfx.re. Since then, that project has reportedly been brought back from the dead and is called ROME (Rockstar Online Modding Engine). In the summer of 2024, Rockstar had put a new public_mission_creator file inside of a GTA Online update.
Going back to why Rockstar/Groot Gang played favourites with servers. According to the new document, NoPixel was able to bypass the new FiveM agreement as NoPixel has been working to move itself to ROME from FiveM.
We learned just as this story was breaking that another report had broke about Rockstar’s plans for GTA 6 and user-generated content. According to Digiday, Rockstar spoken to top creators in Fortnite and Roblox about how they can create content in GTA 6’s online mode. Learn more here.
Someone Used ChatGPT To Work At Rockstar
In case you are not familiar, alt:V is another modification service for GTA Online. Tuxick led development on it. The FiveM.team document states that the Tuxick attempted to sell their skills to Rockstar and get a job there. However, the proposal to Rockstar is claimed to have been written by ChatGPT, an AI. Rockstar actually hired Tuxick and the alt:V team and worked on FiveM.
The alt:V staff who joined Rockstar are said to have been given early access to the next GTA V build and shared it with their friends outside of Rockstar… It goes deeper. This is what caused the GTA V source code to leak on Christmas Day 2023. These members also are said to have leaked the next-gen version of GTA V for PC and the integration of BattlEye months in advance. Cheatmakers were part of the wider group who found out…
With the combination of Cfx.re and alt:V working on FiveM, it led to the platform becoming unstable and causing issues for servers. alt:V was a “copy-paste” of FiveM. It is said that all of the main developers who helped FiveM have since left Rockstar. NTA knew how to run FiveM well given they created it. With the person who built it from the start no longer on the team, along with all other original staff, FiveM is not in a good technical state at this moment in time.
What’s Next?
The document states both FiveM and RedM will continue if the player base remains. Though there is a lack of discipline and structure in the company. Where FiveM will still be worked on, it is suggested RedM is “for all intensive purposes” dead, much like Rockstar’s own Red Dead Online. Ultimately, FiveM will be phased out for ROME.
The document ends by saying “Everyone we spoke to would like to explicitly say that they have no hard feelings against R*, and still consider themselves fans. They speak positively about R*”. It goes onto say “Rockstar has thousands of employees. Don’t extrapolate the actions of FiveM to R* or Take2! Rockstar employees don’t get away with embezzling money, bullying their boss, or doing nothing for years. Rockstar has actual world-class developers. GTA6 is going to be good, go buy it when it comes out!”
So for now, fans will have to enjoy what they have with FiveM and await Rockstar’s reveal of ROME and GTA 6. There is far, far more not covered in this article which the document thoroughly covers. It’s long but an important read.
Be sure to stay tuned to RockstarINTEL for any GTA 6 and FiveM news updates.
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2 Comments
I found this article to be ironically funny. It mentions at one point about how a guy’s job proposal was written by Chat GPT.
This article itself was definitely written by AI as well.
I dunno about that^ other random member. It’s written by someone who doesn’t know English. “For all intents and purposes”: only retards say that. Ai is too clean and smart. Like why did they write “…some would say”?
I can’t fucking stand the kids that glomp onto GTA now. They’re stupid and inept. Those modders sharing the fucking source code: well done; they single handedly killed any official mod support.
When you’re hired by the company whose game your mod you’re an AMBASSADOR. And given how weird and passionate some are about GTA multiplayer mods: if I was part of the leak I’d watch my back forever now. People get killed for less especially in poor, stupid countries like parts of Eastern Europe, Russia, USA.