Capcom has public expressed concern about the use of mods in its PC games, saying they could potentially lead to “reputational damage,” among other things.
Spotted by Eurogamer, Capcom’s R&D team uploaded a video presentation as part of an Open Conference the Resident Evil maker hosted late last month. The presentation, titled “Anti-cheat and Anti-Piracy Measures in PC Games Recommendations for In-House Production,” emphasizes how to curb cheating and piracy in any games the company releases on PC. At one point during the presentation, it focuses on PC mods, which the presenter insists are cheating.
“Mods are popular with users because they allow them to add or change various features to an existing game,” Capcom programmer Taro Yahagi explains in the presentation. “However, for the purposes of anti-cheat and anti-piracy, all mods are defined as cheats.”
Yahagi explained that unless mods are officially supported by the game, any unofficial support or mods created by users and uploaded to places like NexusMods constitute as cheating by the publisher.
While Yahagi did admit a “majority of mods” can have a positive impact on a game, he also explained how they are a double-edged sword, with some mods posing a threat to the company’s image and causing “reputational damage.”
“There are a number of mods that are offensive to public order and morals. When these are disseminated, the image of the product is tarnished and branding is affected,” Yahagi explained. “Also, these offensive mods may be mistaken for legitimate implementations and can cause reputational damage.”
At first glance, you could infer the presenter is mentioning mods that provide nudity or sexually suggestive outfits to playable characters and NPCs. But Yahagi explained that malicious mods could cause an additional workload for the development team, as some mods cause performance issues or result in a player losing saved data. Time and resources spent dealing with such mods could cause potential delays in the production of a game or delays to support for players who never modded their game to begin with.
While some cheats can be used to make games easier, such as perfect accuracy or max ammo in Resident Evil 4 Remake, a majority of mods in the game are completely harmless, such as the Resident Evil Village mod that replaces Chris Redfield’s face with baby Rose’s. Or another for Resident Evil 2 Remake where every time Mr. X walks you hear a squeaking sound.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
