Sony Issues DMCA Takedown Against Bloodborne 60FPS Mod, Four Years After Release 1

Update []: Modder Lance McDonald has clarified some detail about Sony's DMCA takedown relating to his Bloodborne mod, which allows the game to run at 60 frames-per-second.

In a post on Discord, McDonald says Sony's issue was with the use of the trademarked word Bloodborne, rather than the patch itself.

"The DMCA was not against the patch," he wrote. "They used DMCA to take down the page because the page used the word "Bloodborne" which they own the trademark of. They can't legally DMCA the patch because it's 100% code and the patch doesn't actually even say what game it's for in it. However I'm not stupid enough to try to work around their copyright to re-post it."

So, it's perhaps not as mean-spirited of Sony as it first appeared, with the issue being a matter of copyright on the game's title.

Still, the timing remains unusual, given that the patch has been around for years with the Bloodborne name, so the fan theory that this takedown is indicative of an impending announcement can still fly.

Original Story: Almost four years down the line, Sony has issued a DMCA takedown request against an unofficial Bloodborne patch that allows it to run at 60 frames-per-second.

The news comes via the mod's creator, Lance McDonald, on social media:

McDonald has said in the past that Bloodborne is just two lines of code away from hitting the performance target. His unofficial update proves that it's possible, but now the mod is unavailable thanks to Sony taking action against it.

While this shouldn't be surprising news, the timing is quite interesting. Why has the DMCA takedown taken such a long time to happen?

Some are positing that the takedown request has occurred now because the action RPG's 10th anniversary is in March of this year, which would be an ideal time for Sony to make any Bloodborne-related announcements.

After all, if people can play Bloodborne at 60 frames-per-second now, why would they bother buying, say, a remaster?

It's all just speculation of course (and likely a generous dose of hopium), but there's definitely some logic to what fans are saying here. Either Sony is very slow to discover the mod, or its sudden action suggests something else is bubbling away.

What do you think? Does this DMCA takedown mean anything more, or are Sony's lawyers just playing catchup? Discuss in the comments section below.

[source x.com, via resetera.com]