Mods for the Consoles?

[Spiney]

hey, some of you are confused sorta, weren't a lot of Oblivion DLC just mods you paid for, like say the Wizards tower? it wasn't there when i didn't have the DLC but when i have it downloaded the tower is taking up real estate that was previously unused.

so the answer is some mods could be integrated as DLC however some can not due to the fact that they may change way too much of the games code and or script breaking some other quests and such.. mods such as new races and hair and weapons, maybe even houses COULD very well be an option.

All of the stuff you downloaded for Oblivion was official stuff. Made by Bethesda for a little extra profit. Unofficial mods would have the trouble of having Microsoft expecting to paid to put normally free stuff on X-box Live.

[Kestral]

It would be quite revolutionary to have a system where users could submit multi-platform mods that people would then be able to download and install on their systems. Of course, the mods would need to be signed with encryption keys so the consoles could play them, but if Bethesda hosts the server and signs the mods with the encryption keys for the consoles, I can't imagine why not.

[Red Guardian]

Even if you get past all the technical stuff, there's no way Microsoft would allow free content!

You might be right. And don't even ask Sony because you'll get the same reply - they won't allow free content.

They swin in cash and they still want more, that's awesome......................

[Incarnal]

I would like it, but it would require a major change for how they handle the game packaging on consoles. Also, I'm not 100% sure that console makers want mods for games on there.

[ace62394]

Even if you get past all the technical stuff, there's no way Microsoft would allow free content!

You might be right. And don't even ask Sony because you'll get the same reply - they won't allow free content.

They swin in cash and they still want more, that's awesome......................

Though Sony probably won't allow it, they are a step above Microsoft because that thing with UT3 mods for PS3. Very small step, though

[Symphonic]

That still doesn't bypass the Disk locked content. It is made to be uneditable from an outside source. A feature built in to every console game.

Easy fix: if you want to use mods, your game has to be installed on your Xbox/PS3 hard drive. I install most of my games as it is, I don't think it's really too much to ask.

[T PoPTartZz T]

That still doesn't bypass the Disk locked content. It is made to be uneditable from an outside source. A feature built in to every console game.

Easy fix: if you want to use mods, your game has to be installed on your Xbox/PS3 hard drive. I install most of my games as it is, I don't think it's really too much to ask.

It doesn't matter if you install it because the files are directly transferred. They
are still encoded with the console-specific encryption keys. The only way you
could possibly mod it is if you hacked your Xbox/PS3 into playing pirated content,
which will make you say bye-bye to any official DLC released by Beth without a
long, difficult struggle. I do not endorse or recommend this method because
you'll then have to buy a second Xbox/PS3 for online play (NOT WITH SKYRIM).

[Symphonic]

Oh, maybe there's a bit of misunderstanding. I'm not saying that installing your games on your Xbox currently will allow you to mod them. There are no Xbox 360 version mods, I'm well aware of this. I don't encourage pirated content or hardmodding consoles either.

What I'm saying is, if Beth wanted to enable mod support for future the console versions, they could simply have the minor requirement of installing the games on the HD, in order to allow for potential file re-writing.

[Spiney]

Oh, maybe there's a bit of misunderstanding. I'm not saying that installing your games on your Xbox currently will allow you to mod them. There are no Xbox 360 version mods, I'm well aware of this. I don't encourage pirated content or hardmodding consoles either.

What I'm saying is, if Beth wanted to enable mod support for future the console versions, they could simply have the minor requirement of installing the games on the HD, in order to allow for potential file re-writing.

You can already do that, it's just that those files on your HDD are still encrypted. They can't be changed unless a proper encryption key is used and only Microsoft gives out warrants for those. It'd be a damn hard issue to circumvent.

[Symphonic]

I know you can do it now...like I said, I do it already for many of my games. You're missing the point in that I'm not suggesting that you homebrew PC mods onto your Xbox. I'm saying that with an installed game (therefore alleviating the read-only issue) and some sort of agreement between Microsoft and Bethesda (regarding the encryption, presumably with heavy limits, but something is better than nothing) it wouldn't be as much of a stretch as people are making it out to be.

Yes, current limitations prevent someone from taking existing Oblivion mods and using them on their existing Oblivion copy for Xbox 360. However, I'm suggesting a fix at the developer end that would allow us to use mods, possibly with a template or dev kit that usually goes out to devs for console games.