Modding has been around for a very long time and is a staple of the PC gaming community. While modding can make the gaming experience better, Capcom thinks that all mods are a form of cheating.
Capcom’s research and development YouTube channel recently posted a video that focused on the studio’s “anti-cheat and anti-piracy measures in PC games” and detailed its efforts in tackling cheating within its titles. In the video, Capcom said that mods can cause “reputational damage” due to offensive content that violates “public order and morals” which can destroy a game’s image.
The Resident Evil and Street Fighter studio admits that mods are popular since they change or improve existing features of a game and a “majority of mods can have a positive impact.” However, Capcom sees some mods as “detrimental” to the company in terms of “reputational damage.” The recent controversy caused by the “Chun-Li Nude Mod” in a Street Fighter 6 tournament comes to mind.
“There are a number of mods that are offensive to public order and morals,” Capcom explained. “When these are disseminated, the image of the product is tarnished and branding is affected.” The presentation doesn’t contain any examples of what Capcom means by this or what it considers to be “offensive to public order and morals.”
Street Fighter 6 and Resident Evil 4 are just some of Capcom’s titles that are popular with the modding community. We have seen mods that changes the Chainsaw Man into Shrek or add the popular Thomas the Tank Engine to Resident Evil. There are mods that do take things a bit too far like nude mods or others that may seem offensive to a portion of the community. However, it is unclear if these mods are what Capcom refers to as “offensive to public order and morals.”
During the presentation, Capcom stated that in terms of its anti-cheat and anti-piracy efforts, “all mods are defined as cheats.” The studio says it will be impossible for anti-cheat software to distinguish between mods and cheat tools in games that do not officially support modding. Anti-tamper software also cannot tell what the purpose of a mod is.
Capcom’s take on modding is very interesting as it talks about the difficulty of identifying harmless mods and cheats, especially in multiplayer games. On a technical level, anti-cheat or anti-tamper software cannot read a mod’s purpose or intention. The presentation also talks about the unintentional harm that can be done by even the most mundane mods.
With that said, Capcom should, at the very least, separate competitive titles such as Street Fighter 6 from its single-player games such as Resident Evil and treat them differently. Modding in multiplayer titles can give one person an unfair advantage while modifying single-player games doesn’t really matter too much as it only affects one player. Hopefully, with the development of Capcom’s REX engine, the studio can officially support mods that enhance a player’s experience while making it hard for devs to cheat on multiplayer titles.
