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Gibson: Testing and QA might get pretty difficult as well. With a PC you can test a mod in the actual environment that it runs on. With the console you'll likely have to wait for a third party (like Sony or Microsoft) to distribute the mod before you can even play it on the console. Then at that point you'll likely run into all kinds of console specific issues like user interface problems, controller issues, etc. Testing and bug fixing is an iterative process, and I would be very interested to see how this could work out with mod development on a console.
On a code development level there could be some difficulties there as well depending on the game that you are modding for. With the Unreal engine, it has its own specific programming language that is platform agnostic. So modders just write their code in the Unrealscript language and it should run on anything - PC, Linux, Console - any platform that the game engine itself is set up to run on. With other game engines, the modders might have to write some console specific low level code which could get pretty difficult.
With an Unreal engine-based mod from a third-party, for example, do you think it would first have to be approved by Epic for use on console and then approved by the particular console manufacturer - e.g. Sony and Microsoft?
Gibson: I can only speculate on this, but I would assume that the mods would have to go through an approval process from both the game engine developer (such as Epic) and the console manufacturer.
Would you like to see the mod scene take off on console in a big way and what sort of impact would this have on the PC mod scene?
Gibson: I think the PC mod scene as a whole is already in trouble. It isn't like the early days of modding when there were just a few mods and when a mod came out it was abig thing. Mod teams seem to expect to just roll a buggy pre-alpha mod out the door and have it become the next Counter-Strike overnight.
It takes a lot higher quality these days to get player's attention, and even then making a great mod doesn't guarantee anyone will play it. There were alot of amazing mods for UT2K4 that came out and just fizzled out. Half-Life 2 mods seem to be having the same problem as well. There are great mods coming out, but they are only getting a handful of players.
For things to turn around for the PC mod scene, I think that the game developers really are going to have to get behind the mods, and help find ways to promote them and make it easier for players to get their hands on them.
Companies like Epic and Valve have made great strides in this regard, but there is still along way to go. Players have to first be able to hear about a mod and get interested in it, and then have an easy way to get their hands on it.
Without those two things, I think the PC mod scene will continue to decline in popularity. It is also in the developer's best interest to support the mod scene.
Games like Half-Life, BF 1942 and UT2K4 sold a lot of additional games due to mods like Counter-Strike, Desert Combat and Red Orchestra.
I think the potential exists for the consoles to see another revolution like we saw with the first generation of mods like Counter-Strike. Even though Halo wasn't revolutionary in the PC realm, it was a lot of console gamers' first taste of an FPS and online multiplayer. So it gotreally huge.
I think the same thing will happen with console modding. There will be this one mod that comes out thateverybody gets and it just gets really huge - similar to what CS did on the PC.
