A YouTuber who remastered The Simpsons: Hit & Run in a week has had to remove the game citing nothing more than "copyright concerns" for doing so.
Sometimes if a studio appears to have no plans to remaster a game, or it's unclear who exactly fans need to pester for that remaster, talented gamers take matters into their own hands. YouTuber reubs did that recently by remastering The Simpsons: Hit & Run. In the space of a week, reubs upgraded the original game, which launched in 2003, to give it 4K graphics and ray-tracing capabilities.
Reubs claims it only took them a week to complete the project, publishing evidence of the process online and even offering up a demo of Hit & Run's first mission for free. That demo has now disappeared as reubs revealed there had been “copyright concerns” surrounding their work.
The YouTuber doesn't reveal who exactly had a problem with the 4K Hit & Run demo. That means exactly who would be responsible for an official remake remains shrouded in mystery. The obvious answer would be Disney. The corporation bought out Fox in 2019 including the rights to The Simpsons and all of its episodes. However, since Radical Entertainment and Vivendi Universal Games published and developed Hit & Run, Disney might not own the rights to it.
It seems that figuring out who can make an official remaster happen would be well worth someone's while. A survey undertaken earlier this year revealed that people want Hit & Run to be remastered more than any other game. Second-placed GTA San Andreas was a full 20% behind the Simpsons' game, and that will reportedly be getting remastered as part of a trilogy alongside GTA 3 and Vice City.
The unknown entity's issue with an unofficial remaster being available online does offer up a glimmer of hope for anyone hoping Hit & Run returns after almost 20 years. Take-Two has been issuing takedowns left and right this year as we move closer to the aforementioned remastered trilogy. Reubs reported copyright concerns not only confirm someone does own the rights to the game and knows about it, but also that they might be considering an official remaster in the future.