What if Wii decided to fully support modding from Bethesda and Bethesda started making games for them too?

Hi, I recently heard an interview with Todd Howard where he said that Bethesda wants to add mods from the pc version to the xbox. Hypothetically if this was to happen what form would it take? Would it be like a skyrim workshop thing where you "subscribe" to different mods? or would it be download center of some sort? I don't want to know if it's going to happen or not, I'm more interested in the technical aspects or if it would even be possible.

Thanks

The problem with this is not implementation. Its matter of Microsoft and Sony not allowing it.

I believe todd said that since the creation kit is essentially what they used to make the game, that implementing the mods to consoles isnt a problem. but its the greedy microsoft and possibly a little greed on sony, not sure on the reasons. i dont see why not. have them charge a membership fee paid to both the console develepers and bethesda and i wouldnt have a problem with that.

yeah as others have stated it is up to microsoft and sony and so far they are not budging.

Its not greed. In order to implement mods there 'could' be certain security in terms of modifications of games ( other games) that could occur. Obviously they dont believe it can work out. Have you tried playing cod4 or WaW recently? Those same mods require a modded console ( other people attain them by joining the same game, hence the name Infections). That would be their main reasoning I would think.

just thought about it, it might be because its third-party developers and if people get a mod that breaks their game.... well, guess who they will likely complain to. and microsoft/sony providing people with those mods some would see them as having a shared responsibility for that.

That's what I don't understand, they should be jumping at the opportunity. If I had to choose between the two console versions, and one offered mods and the other didn't then I would pick the one with mods.

See my last post

I'm sure that there would have to be some sought of screening process like valve does with items added to tf2

They could always have them agree to one of those use at your own risk agreements.

haha sorry, I'm new to this forum thing

Nah its all good mate.

true. in that case i dont understand what is stopping them or giving them hesitation about this. i still think that, even though todd wants it to be free, if they charged for the mods on consoles they could make a lot more money on that than the actual game itself, even at low costs. I would like it if it were more fee per month than fee per mod though.

*edit* as for charging for it they just need the modders to sign over all the mods to bethesda(which i think they do regardless), as they cannot sell the mods for profit(if i understand the modding community correctly, never having been a modder myself).

not sure they will ever do that since it would be like selling others works. I for one would be willing to pay if I was still on console however.

yeah, from a business standpoint it makes sense, but are Bethesda allowed to sell mods created by others?

I would happily pay a small amount of money for mods or maybe mod "packs" ( a bunch of armors or weapons bundled together or something). Its one of the only thing that separates PC and counsel gaming and if the Big Three want to have an upper hand they need to embrace something like this

But that then begs the question: who decides which mods are good enough to release? the community or bethesda?

not sure. I know they stated they do not wish to publish others works and would rather have them publish it themselves.

let the community decide which mods can go to console, and then it could wait for bethesda's approval.

The reason they don't want free mods - even if the questions about security, bugs and potential inappropriate content were resolved - is that it undermines their entire business model.

As I've said in another thread, they don't make that much money on the consoles themselves, they make their real money on licensing games to be made for their console. Publishers give them a piece of the action in exchange for the Xbox development kit. So if they set something up where people get content for free, they don't make any money off of it. Why should they facilitate such a thing? Toshiba or HP or Apple make their money off the actual laptop that they sell you; Microsoft and Sony basically sell the console itself for near-cost, so making money off content is how they make their profits.

You can't expect a company to go giving content out for free when that's how they put food on the table.

put yourself in the modders shoes, i would personally be estatic if i saw my mod be liked enough to go to consoles and seeing that people are willing to pay to get it.

Well Bethesda would have to check them for obvious reasons, but the community could easily have a voting system to up vote the good mods and down vote the bad/ uncool mods on where ever the mods are posted to weed through the hundreds of mods and then maybe once a month Beth takes the top 5 mods and screens them and puts them out for release

that seems like the best idea to me. One simple mod i'd like to see is the armed to the teeth mod, it just makes so much sense!

But would it really cut into their profit margin that much? with all the other things you have to pay for on live it dosen't seem like that much. And if they had mods that would out them in a position above the competition.