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posted by malloc at 01:33 am on 2008-01-31 |
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No UT3 mods on 360 because MS fear losing control of Live
Mark Rein Co-founder of Epic games has said it is possible to get user created mods for Unreal Torunament, but MS haven't said if they will or won't let them yet. He agreed that a reason for this was that Microsoft fears losing control of Xbox Live. An example mod that the 360 was capable of is being able to play your own music while you play the game. He went on to say that if it doesn't work out, we may find a few of the best mods become available on Xbox Live Marketplace.
quote:
Are you any closer to resolving the problem of getting user-gen content into the Xbox 360 version?
Not yet but we're hopeful. Microsoft hasn't said "no" yet, but then they haven't said "yes" either. We need them to say "yes," and we need them to do it soon.
So it's technically possible?
Sure. I mean, you can go onto the console and copy your songs on to it and play movies off a memory card - the machine's capable of allowing you to transfer your content around, and even letting you play your music while playing many games.
So why wouldn't Microsoft say yes? Is there a fear of losing control of Xbox Live?
Well, yeah and we don't fault them for that. They've got a closed system where everything's checked, users know the quality of everything they download, and you know it won't crash your machine. User generated content - well, it can be dangerous, you could theoretically download a mod that uses too much memory and crashes your machine.
I think Sony are real pioneers in this - I think they deserve a lot of credit for letting us do this. They're really doing something different, and it hints at what they want to do with the PlayStation Network in the future. They're definitely on the right track!
If it doesn't work out with Xbox 360, depending on sales of the game on that platform, I imagine we'll find a few of the best mods and get them on Xbox Live Marketplace. I don't think 360 users are going to suffer drastically - they're just going to miss out on a lot of crazy, cool fun stuff and the ability to exchange it among themselves. They may also end up paying for content that is free on other systems because Microsoft now has to host it and certify it. But I'm confident Microsoft will look at what's happened with UT3 on the PS3 so far and think, 'Well, we'll take that baby step with you,' because what we've done so far really is just a baby step if you think about it. You've got to go online, you gotta download the mod, and you're responsible for putting it on your machine yourself. There are some exceptions - there are mutators, which modify how gameplay works, that are pretty small - and we let those auto download, but most of the other stuff you've got to go and say 'I'm going to install this on my machine.' We hope to change that in the future.
News Source: guardian
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