GTA Online cheats shut down by Take-Two

Take-Two's lawyers have shut down three cheats for GTA Online, Kotaku report, and their makers are donating their ill-gotten gains to charity. Cheats offered by the trio of Force Hax, Lexicon, and Menyoo in the multiplayer side of Grand Theft Auto V [official site] variously include free cash, invulnerability, spawning vehicles and objects, superpowers like flight and superspeed, spamming big bags of cash, and forcing other players to do things. A real sack of dickbaggery.

These cheat shutdowns come shortly after The Suits killed popular GTA modding tool OpenIV, supposedly for enabling cheating in multiplayer. Rockstar haven't said how this singleplayer tool enabled online cheating, so the explanation is still confusing, but it's good that The Suits are cracking down on actual recognised cheats too.

Force Hax's website now says simply:

"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 proceeeds to charity and we apologize for any and all problems Force Hax services have caused to the Grand Theft Auto Online community."

There's an insincere apology if I've ever heard one. Here's a near-identical statement from Lexicon:

"After discussions with Take-Two Interactive, effective immediately we are ceasing all maintenance, development and distribution of the Lexicon cheat menu services. We will be donating our proceeds to a charity designated by Take-Two. We apologize for any and all problems Lexicon has caused to the Grand Theft Auto Online community."

And Menyoo echo Lexicon:

"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."

I wonder who at Take-Two has the job of writing apologies for others to deliver. I covet that job.

I'm sure this won't spell the end of GTA Online cheating. Ideally Rockstar would block the cheats, as surely other people will create new cheats to exploit similar weaknesses, but this step is welcome. Sometimes the hacks can create funny stories, like Nick Breckon being ridden and tormented by the Joker, but for people who actually want to play GTA Online it's an awful and irritating mess which has rolled on for far too long.