We all love modders. Not only do they make certain games better, providing unofficial patches that either help things run more smoothly or eliminate bugs, but they also give us the wildest videos that feature Thomas the Tank Engine soaring through the skies of Skyrim or a tense chainsaw fight between Leon Kennedy and Shrek. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem likeCapcomshares the same sentiment.
According to a video on the Capcom R&D YouTube channel (thanksGamesRadar), the publisher believes that if someone is using a mod that hasn’t been officially distributed by itself, they’re basically cheating. In the video, you can see Capcom’s stance on mods at the 14-minute mark, in which it states that all mods should be “defined as cheats” unless they’re officially supported.
It states that while it acknowledges that some mods benefit players, most unofficial mods are impossible for anti-cheat and anti-piracy software to distinguish from legitimate cheats and should be classified as such. Capcom also states that unofficial mods are “no different” from more nefarious cheats in as to what they’re doing to games internally, and that more malicious mods have the potential to damage the company’s reputation.
Not quite sure howmodding Mario into Resident Evil 4or having Leon Kennedyrun around with his wang outis cheating, but you do you Capcom.
It’s a pretty tough stance, but one that is rather baffling from an outside perspective. There are far more unofficial mods that improve Capcom’s titles than there are ones that negatively impact them, solely because if you’re going to go out of your way and dedicate time to creating a mod, chances are you’re a fan of the game itself.
Capcom may have a point when it comes to reputational damage though. Modders can be a thirsty lot at times, and instances such as the Street Fighter 6 tournament earlier this year - in whicha competitor accidentally left their nude Chun-Li mod installedbefore entering - probably cause a lot more issues internally at Capcom than we expect. All it takes is for one executive somewhere to think mods like that are official to cause a bit of bother.
Capcom also states that mods may sometimes cause issues such as save data corruption and freezes, and figuring out that these issues aren’t actually the fault of the game itself takes up time that can be spent elsewhere. Again, it’s a valid complaint against mods, though one could argue that’s just the reality of PC gaming these days. You’re going to get people modding your games whether you want them to or not, and use the blanket term “cheats” for all unofficial mods will probably cause more harm than fix any ongoing problems.
