MS talks lack of mods for 360
Unreal Tournament III was announced for the 360 back at the beginning of last year. However what makes the game so popular on the PC is the possibility of mods which allow for new weapons, character models, maps and so on. It was said early on that mods for the 360 would prove troublesome thanks to Microsoft’s concerns over the potential threat mods bring to system security. The PS3 then got a release in November of last year (in North America), yet still the 360 version was no-where to be seen, nor have Epic announced much other than “the game is coming along nicely”. Now Microsoft XNA general manager Chris Satchell has come out and spoken about exactly why mods on the 360 aren’t appearing.
Speaking to Eurogamer:
Eurogamer: The peer-review system seems like it has the potential to be used outside XNA. One of the things that’s in the headlines a lot is Epic’s problem of wanting to do modifications for Unreal Tournament 3. Is the peer-review system something that could be reused to allow modified content of that nature?
Chris Satchell: […]
Now the modding’s a little different. Yes it could help rate mods, but the core issue of modding is what we talked about earlier - if you’re not running in that sandbox, how do you guarantee security?
That’s really where we’ve got stuck - making sure that nothing will hurt the user’s system, and I’m a little disturbed when I think about other systems and people using what we call native code - code that goes right down to the metal - and then allowing people to run script mods on top of that without the right security measures. It could be really dangerous.
We’ve drawn a hard line because we very much care about security, and it seems like some other platforms don’t seem to care quite as much. That kind of worries me for consumers. But all I can control is what we do on our platform, so that’s where I’m going to focus - we’re going to keep you safe because that’s really important to us.
Eurogamer: So not even needing to read between the lines, you’re saying that there’s a potential risk to consumers of PS3?
Chris Satchell: I think there’s a potential risk on any platform where you’re allowing…where you’re running in what we call native mode, where you’re writing straight to the metal, not a sandbox layer like XNA, and then that runs a script engine and you let people do that in that script engine.
[…]
I think there’s very mature, sensible hackers who just want to prove how good they are, and they don’t cause harm, and there’s malicious hackers, and any platform that let’s you do that, and doesn’t have the right security measures in place - whether it’s Sony, whether it’s Nintendo, whether it’s Apple, whether it’s anyone - you’re inviting trouble, because sooner or later someone will want to prove they can do it.
It’s an interesting point and certainly a good enough reason to be concerned, however the PS3 has done a great job so far of controlling the mods and there haven’t been any stories just yet about someone’s system breaking down as a result of a particular mod. There are ways around the issue: submit your content to Epic or Microsoft for approval, then Microsoft put it on the Xbox Live Marketplace, or fully ban a user for inappropriate content. Whether anything will be done about it remains to be seen though, as there’s little commercial gain for Microsoft who are well known for wanting to charge for content. Hosting thousands of mods will come at a cost to them; is it a cost that they want to suffer?
Sour grapes, that’s all this is in my eyes. After all Microsoft’s biggest character, Master Chief, looks better in Unreal III than he does in Halo 3.
Have a look, remember the one on the right is the Halo3 model and made by professionals the one on the left by some geek in his bedroom, i think the armour looks better in unreal III guise.
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/gamesinc/archives/2008/03/will_the_real_m.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_nussbaumondesign
Also some Gears characters are here.
http://ps3mods.blogspot.com/2008/03/ut3-character-mods-hello-master-chief.html
I think they look pretty good considering.
O … M … G …
Did you say Master Chief looks better in a UT mod than in Halo 3?? *Gasp* I think the tide may have just turned in this console war.
One day K.Outhouse you will post a comment that is worth reading, i doubt it highly, we can all hope though.
take into account that the model was made for the PC version of UT3, and STOLEN by a PS3 user who used Epic’s PS3 Mod-cooker to port it, and claimed it was his own. Sad really…
Yet you keep reading them… interesting.
Keep in mind Lotus that it’s hard to compete with such hard-hitting and insightful posts like the one you opened with– describing which Master Chief character model looks better. I’m seriously still coming to grips with this new information– I may be forced to jump-ship to ps3 if this is indeed true! *BOMBSHELL*
Still waiting for that post.
He’s too green.
How lame, all modders are going to hell.
There is no doubt that MS are trying hard to justify having a closed off architecture on the 360 however I can see that doing more harm than good with future titles. We really need the dash to be more open. Where are the tools that allow us to make our own themes? Fs how long do users have to put up with pathetic pre-made themes that cost around £1-2 or so? I know this is a small issue but still.
So far this is just one measly title so I couldn’t care less but future titles would benefit from having user created content that doesn’t have to go through MS’s awfully slow certification processes.
As for the open nature of the PS3’s OS, I think it’s fair to say that there has been quite a few user created UT mods out there that have caused lockups and crashes on the console. I was reading about it on a PS3 site just last night.
I’ll post a link later when I get home.
The PS3 version of UT3 runs at Medium settings for starters - and a lot of mods are simply PC ports, which require more memory than the PS3 (and 360) would have available at any one time.
The PS3 is also quite limited with regards to mods - all it really allows is maps, models, and mutators - the real meat with UT games has been with regards to total conversions (effectively new games built upon the UT/UE engine) - such as Red Orchestra, which has now moved to the Source engine i believe.
Link I was on about.
http://ps3.qj.net/Unreal-Tournament-3-user-created-content-causing-PS3s-to-crash/pg/49/aid/110207
yo darren, re: the dash themes… you know you can assign photos to all the blades, and basically personalize your theme, right? what else do you want to do?
Hmmmm, if there has already been a few mods that have caused some people’s PS3’s to lockup and crash, maybe MS has a point in being so reluctant to allow any and everyone to create mods for the 360.
They already have enough problems with the RRoD to worry about.
i have had five 360s and tons of games, and i can say, from experience, that lots of games cause the 360 to lock up and crash. at least till patch 3 or 4.
It’s okay Mommy Microsoft, I’m a big boy now. I can handle mods.
wait… this is BS! there are mods on halo3 where people are changing maps that bungie made, there has even been moded maps you can downlaoded for halo 3 which freezes your console, i believe microsoft would let modders make maps for ut3 on 360 if microsoft made money for each maps thouse stupid greedy bastards.
yeh, id say “M$ grow some balls” but this is all about the money. they dont give a fuck if our consoles crash, they just dont want us playing one thing for ages without paying extra for it. if they had mods they could put in a disclaimer which would allow people to download them and use the mods at their own disgression. but that obviously isnt the problem, this twat even has the nerve to start saying other companies should be wary doing what sony is doing- im pretty sure everybody wants this and that this type of shit is what we were promised as nextgen content. like the bbc vids, M$ just cant be bothered if its not gonna make dough.
chris satchell is a fucking pussy and a lazy, money-hungry bitch of a man and xna sucks balls.
disgression… i like that!
Apparently I will have to sink hundreds into upgrading my pc just so I can play UT3 to its full potential with dedicated servers.
Sadface :(
Also I wanna play F%^king FRAG OPS.
Also instagib but thats in game mutator
A big load of crap. Looks like I will be getting my first multi-platform game on the PS3.
Keep in mind if you have xbox live…you have your credit card number on the xbox….
Not everyone uses credit cards though :) There are pre-pay cards too.
I have both PS3 and 360 and have downloaded the Chief and the Gears Characters. They look great but its a great engine the Unreal Engine. I’ve played this on a decent pc too and Epic have done a great job for PS3 in looks and control, slowing the game enough for consoles which makes it really playable. Also it may run at medium spec but on a big 1080p screen who cares it still looks great. The whole mods argument is valid but a shame as most genuinely improve the gameplay experience.
Lack of mods, yes. How about keyboard/mouse support like the PS3 will have for UT3.
there is a product that offers that, but it has not gotten the best reception…
http://www.teamxtender.com/catalog/catalog.php?productID=165
well, ps3 version for me then…
But damnit, I wanteed to whore achievements.