EULA changes?

[This is fine.]

Today upon trying to open the game, it prompted me to agree to a new EULA. Anyone more savvy than me know what changed? Considering the publisher that owns Risk of Rain now, I'm hesitant to just blindly agree to this.

[CanvasK]

The most obvious changes are that it is about Take-Two and not Hopoo Games anymore, it is over 5x longer, and has a lot more legal mumbo-jumbo.

In both the old and current was their right to revoke your license to the game at any time. The agreement to the EULA can be terminated at any time by either you or them. EULA can be modified at any time without notice. Pretty common stuff in EULAs.

Hopoo's EULA said you can use and make mods and retain the rights to them and you give them permission to contact you about adding/replicating it for the actual game. Take-Two's EULA kinda says "don't make mods, don't use mods, don't talk about mods".

Other things I noticed in the new one (that weren't in the old (or at least not as explicit)):
-You may need to make an account for stuff
-All virtual items are theirs
-You are responsible for stuff you create/upload to their sites/games/apps
-You retain the rights to the stuff from the previous point, but Take-Two is allowed to do anything they want with that stuff
-Custom things created with Take-Two's sites/games/apps belongs to them
-Do not do anything illegal pls
-Do not promote bugs, glitches, cheats, mods, mod launchers, scripts, etc.
-Do not decompile/disassemble their stuff
-Do not advocate for violating the aforementioned points
-They can and will moderate your usage if they want. They may let you have the same privilege
-DMCA details
-You may need to purchase things or subscribe to things through their sites/games/apps
-"Photosensitive Seizure Warning" in a EULA that most won't read. That's how you do accessibility
-A bunch of legaleese

If you want to read the old EULA's text, see here https://web.archive.org/web/20250319142327/https://store.steampowered.com/eula/632360_eula_0

[This is fine.]

Originally posted by CanvasK:

The most obvious changes are that it is about Take-Two and not Hopoo Games anymore, it is over 5x longer, and has a lot more legal mumbo-jumbo.

In both the old and current was their right to revoke your license to the game at any time. The agreement to the EULA can be terminated at any time by either you or them. EULA can be modified at any time without notice. Pretty common stuff in EULAs.

Hopoo's EULA said you can use and make mods and retain the rights to them and you give them permission to contact you about adding/replicating it for the actual game. Take-Two's EULA kinda says "don't make mods, don't use mods, don't talk about mods".

Other things I noticed in the new one (that weren't in the old (or at least not as explicit)):
-You may need to make an account for stuff
-All virtual items are theirs
-You are responsible for stuff you create/upload to their sites/games/apps
-You retain the rights to the stuff from the previous point, but Take-Two is allowed to do anything they want with that stuff
-Custom things created with Take-Two's sites/games/apps belongs to them
-Do not do anything illegal pls
-Do not promote bugs, glitches, cheats, mods, mod launchers, scripts, etc.
-Do not decompile/disassemble their stuff
-Do not advocate for violating the aforementioned points
-They can and will moderate your usage if they want. They may let you have the same privilege
-DMCA details
-You may need to purchase things or subscribe to things through their sites/games/apps
-"Photosensitive Seizure Warning" in a EULA that most won't read. That's how you do accessibility
-A bunch of legaleese

If you want to read the old EULA's text, see here https://web.archive.org/web/20250319142327/https://store.steampowered.com/eula/632360_eula_0

Thank you for taking the time to explain this, hopefully other confused players can also make use of it.

These changes are worrying for the future of the game/series and its modding community to say the least.

[Miles Bluefalls]

Take Two continues to think they're in a neck-and-neck race with Bethesda, EA, Activision, and Ubi for the coveted "biggest sleaze in the gaming industry" title.

[This is fine.]

Originally posted by Miles Bluefalls:

Take Two continues to think they're in a neck-and-neck race with Bethesda, EA, Activision, and Ubi for the coveted "biggest sleaze in the gaming industry" title.

On the plus side I think a lot of these terms are illegal in a lot of places so the legal validity of these demands in places like the EU are questionable at best. Seems like they're just throwing a bunch of anti-consumer nonsense at a wall and hoping something sticks in some countries. Sony recently did a similar thing, with outrageous illegal demands in their updated EULA (like revoking your license to the game and suing you if you leave a negative review or otherwise speak negatively about the game in any way, which is not only illegal pretty much globally, but also entirely laughable), which they realistically can not legally enforce on most customers without breaking countless local laws.

However, if they move against mod support (probably in an attempt to push MTX) that isn't a very nice thing to hear, and also suggest a not so rosy future for the game.

[CanvasK]

Best case scenario it is just to cover their butt so they can say "we sold (a license for) this game. If you used cheats or mods and the game did something bad to you or your device, that ain't on us".

It is still a shift from Hopoo Games where early on they went out of their way to adjust the codebase so that if you have a mod that adds Bandit but HG adds Bandit into vanilla then they can coexist without issue despite the same name.

EDIT: It looks like I misremembered what Hopoo did in regards to Bandit. Based on the patch notes they didn't rework the codebase but still made a change so the mod and vanilla can coexist (I think the modded version used a WIP "bandit" asset so Hopoo created "bandit2" so it won't overwrite the mod). But they still added a lot of features that were modder friendly and were keeping an eye on the modding community.

[Mizu]

I find it disgusting to see this game under the 2K/Gearbox banner. Worst thing that could've happened. There will never be a Risk of Rain 3 btw.

[Tina]

Insane

[Oxicon]

The root cause to the RiskOfRain IP is, why did Hopoo sells themselves out? Just like any other Indie developer would, $$$$$$... So i would not blame 2K/Gearbox entirely. Hopoo had a choice to sell out in the first place too.

Correct me if im wrong...

[CanvasK]

Originally posted by Oxicon:

The root cause to the RiskOfRain IP is, why did Hopoo sells themselves out? Just like any other Indie developer would, $$$$$$... So i would not blame 2K/Gearbox entirely. Hopoo had a choice to sell out in the first place too.

Correct me if im wrong...

Hopoo and Paul didn't want to be stuck making Risk of Rain for their entire lives, they wanted to work on other things. They had worked with Gearbox Publishing for years and one of Gearbox's dev teams made large chunks of Survivors of the Void with them. The dev team was enthusiastic about RoR and had lots of ideas while Hopoo Games had run out of ideas. So instead of dropping RoR to collect dust while they made other things, they sold the IP to Gearbox so that they could carry it on. They had a lot of faith in the GB devs but I don't think anyone could've predicted Gearbox themselves being bought by Take-Two, which likely resulted in a train wreck of corporate and managerial nonsense leading to a rushed Seekers of the Storm DLC.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/632360/announcements/detail/3501014738163460156
https://imgur.com/a/koxu4eo

[Davicr(o)]

Next up in Risk Of Rain 2:
- 20 Lunar coin pack for only 9.99!!!
- Exclusive battle pass reward items (including new survivor skins)!!!!!!
- Lunar coin subscription pack (4.99/month)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gaming companies are the cancer of the industry.

[ProfessorLeskinen]

There's also the bit that says "By the way if you're not in the EU, UK, Switzerland, or Australia, you waive all rights to a jury trial, class action participation, or any other legal actions that isn't our forced arbitration if you don't send us a physical letter to our office in New York like it's 1860, and also that letter must include details like associated email, account name, and account ID that is probably unclear or may not even be applicable as a Steam user, but we won't elaborate on that in this Steam EULA. And if for some reason we don't receive it, that's not our problem."

[laxoc001]

i am so disappointed in hopoo. would it be possible to get a refund on the game because of the changed ucla?

[Rokonuxa]

I will mod, I will glitch, I will cheat, I will remain singleplayer and if any of that revokes any access to anything, I will treat my email receipt as the license that companies keep claiming everything I buy is, and continue playing the game the way I intend, which is the only way that matters because it is a game and not a damn safety rule on an oil rig.

[Thumb]

They better treat mod creators right. I can play a back log of games for years and boycott all their products happily for the next 10 years at least.

[Davicr(o)]

I don't understand all of these terms and restrictions on a single player non-competitive game. Just let me play my game like I want bro.