Bethesda Wants Skyrim Mods on Consoles

[Keava]

Can imagine the reaction of Microsoft - "What? Give stuff out?? For free!? Does not compute!". Pretty sure they also want to somehow cash in on the fact that some mods can really take loads of space and thus bandwidth.
Another problem i see is the whole deal with certificates the companies use for their online service content. Would it mean console users would have to wait 3-4 weeks for mods to show up before the company can check them for content? How would they go about censoring stuff?

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

As one of those 90% that didn't hear about mods until relatively recently, I think that would be awesome. I actually wouldn't mind a delay if it got me playable mods.

Yeah, I said it.

 

[Mahorfeus]

Great, now everybody is going to put that damn nudie mod onto their consoles, since that's always the first mod that comes out for a game. I can already see FOX jumping all over this; grab your umbrellas people, this is gonna be one heck of a sh*tstorm.

At any rate, this is pretty much the exact same reason why Valve can't release free updates for consoles, as much as they've said they want to.

 

[ramboondiea]

seems interesting, im curious how they will do this? would it just be DLC. whatever they do id look forward to all the other companies following suit

 

[Megacherv]

Valve and Sony have given hope to others.

Make it happen.

Don't forget Epic with UT3

 

[dmase]

"alongside their PC brethren."

Lol yeah thats exactly what i was thinking when i saw the title. More like ha you still feel special!!! Of course we're gonna have to pay extra somewhere along the line...

It could work like Halo Reach's Forge maps... you just go to a list of items and download them. I don't understand why everyone thinks you will have to pay for user created content.

Like the article said this system hasn't been implemented so far on either the 360 or ps3. I think its a bit more complicated then what your thinking of. The user generated content will be free the service delivering them... I hope will only be a one time cost, sometimes companies will eat that cost but I don't think thats gonna happen.

 

[Zom-B]

I really hope this happens. I gave up my PC years ago and switched to Macs because the wife prefers them and there's just no room for two computers.

Now I have a PS3 and I'd love to have access to mods, just to see what all the hoopla is about. Hopefully Sony and Bethesda can make this happen.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Ooh this is good news! I just can't play these sort of games on a PC, my PC can't really handle it and I've always been envious because the modded games always look so much better!

I'm really happy to see developers supporting the modding communities at this sort of level... Unlike another certain company I won't mention *cough* SEGA *cough*

 

[icyneesan]

>Consoles get mods
>Thousands of 12 year olds download nude patches
>Fox News/News articles that say video games are for crazy perverts that want to sex your child

Heed my words Bethesda. Come up with a system that prevents certain things put onto the consoles.

 

[The Rockerfly]

Oh Skyrim, you are truly after my heart

 

[IceStar100]

Beth An Valve we love you and want you to be happy...

I know this will end aw heck with it. I hope it works out.

 

[Lacsapix]

Oh Skyrim, you are truly after my heart

and this is a post after my heart, everything said.

 

[endnuen]

I want this game more and more..

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I just can't wait to see the inevitable tentacle bear mod. Come on, it has to make it into the game one way or another.

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

What they need to do is get a deal with one of the Nexus mod sites so console players can just DL onto a USB and install of of it onto their console of choice, that way all the bull restrictions placed on PSN and Live can be disregarded.

 

[newwiseman]

But, If they're successful in this venture, how will they make money off of Horse Armor?

I've speculated on this possibility before the problem is how do you do it in a way MS and Sony will be OK with. Most likely it would mean someone hosting a server, or some sort of proxy server, that would handle connections based on account and then allow the add-on to be downloaded and installed.

MS or Sony will never give a direct dump path because of the ease that would allow for the system to be very easily software cracked to run something else like, God Forbid, pirated games.

I'll just keep playing it on my PC where it belongs, in Higher resolution than possible on consoles, with textures that rival real life, and all the polygonal nudity anyone could ever stomach; yet still using an xbox controller FTW.

 

[Echo136]

A dev kit for the PS3 version? Man, Im sold.

 

[Jamash]

Maybe this will work on PSN, but no way in hell does MS allow this to happen without charging for something, anything.

I doubt it will happen easily on the PSN either because Sony charges the developers/publishers for the bandwidth used for all downloaded content.

It's only about $0.16/GB but it all adds up, especially when you consider the popularity and the size of some of the mods downloaded for Oblivion.

For example (according to TESNexus) one of the most popular mods for Oblivion was 70,950kb and download 794,320 times, which if downloaded on the PSN would generate a bandwidth charge of about $8598 (and this is only one mod among thousands, if you allowed all the Oblivion mods ever made to be downloaded on the PSN, the bandwidth charge would be astronomical).

Who would pay for this bandwidth charge? Would Sony pass the charge onto Bethesda, or the person who created the mod, or the user who downloaded the "free" mod.

Would the free user created mods have to be sold by Sony via the PSN store, not for profit but to cover their bandwidth costs? Would the mods only be available to PSN+ subscribers? How many mods would they be allowed to download before they started costing Sony more than their subscription was worth?

Don't think Microsoft are the evil money grabbing corporation and Sony are an altruistic NPO, they both cover the bandwidth costs accrued by content downloaded over their servers, it's just that they deal with the costs differently (by charging the users through the Gold subscription or charging the developers/publishers).

 

[Astalano]

Mods are never going to work on consoles.

There is no basis for it. When you could be working on mods for tons of games on PC, with an established audience and games that can make use of mods, why make a mod for console? You'll likely not even get recognition for it and if they do implement mod tools, they will be basic at best.

Unless you implement mods for all games across all consoles and lay the groundwork for modding communities, they'll be a waste of time to implement, as the few that will use them won't make anything worth talking about. Moreover, Microsoft and Sony will have to implement an XBLA type system of sorting mods and considering how Microsoft treated Team Meat, the future of console modding seems quite bleak in the hands of major corporations who only care about their bottom line.

Finally, modding is the freedom to alter your game as you see fit. Consoles are completely restricted. When you have such a fundamental clash between modding philosophy and developers/publishers' philosophy of complete freedom versus freedom only if it makes profit, the modding community on consoles is doomed from the start.

Also, 90%? That seems way too high. Maybe 70% I can understand, as Oblivion and Fallout 3 are very simplistic, console-oriented RPGs, but not 90%.