If there is one thing gamers love, it is conspiracy theories about greedy developers, and the current nefarious mastermind is apparently Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games. Some modders are claiming that a recent patch from Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online has introduced anti-modding code that degrades game quality and breaks their mods.

“In the latest update for GTA V, Ill Gotten Gains Part 2, Rockstar Games strengthened their protections against modding introduced in the first update,” said the creators of a mod called LCPD First Response (LCPDFR). “Included in this was a whopping 3 MB of junk code designed to confuse modders. Instead of the native functions of the game being accessible directly – we now have to jump through 4 or 5 hoops each time, as the game also implements live decryption and obfuscation methods.”

They added, “This severely impacts performance, resulting in gameplay at 3 frames per second – even on some of the strongest PC systems available today.”

This is not the first conspiracy theory involving Rockstar and GTA mods. Earlier this year, a large number of players reported that they were receiving bans from GTA Online for using single-player mods in GTA V. The studio also released a patch that made several mods unusable, and users accused Rockstar at the time of being “anti-modding.”

However, the studio quickly denied those claims and said that they did not ban any users for using single-player mods, nor did they release a patch with the intention of breaking any mods.

“Recent updates to GTAV PC had an unintended effect of making unplayable certain single player modifications,” Rockstar said at the time. “This was not intentional, no one has been banned for using single player modifications, and you should not worry about being banned or being relegated to the cheater pool just for using single player PC mods.”

While gamers are always quick to grab their pitchforks and torches, it is possible that the modding problems introduced with the latest patch are unintentional, as Rockstar previously said.

Then again, this is the same Rockstar that used some shady tactics to have GTA V displayed prominently during the Steam Summer Sale without actually offering a discount for the game.

Image credit: Rockstar Games Inc