Andre the Giant headlines MattyCollector's Jan. 30 sale on tomopop

WTF is Destructoid? Read this first! Got news? email us

create an account | login

Home Buy & Sell Wii U PS Vita 360 PS3 Wii PC 3DS PSP Reviews Videos Blogs Forums Fight

sickboy's blog

About Me

Gamer Profile

3DS friend code:
Steam: chrish
Battle:
PSN:
Mii:
Gamertag: sickboyyyy

Following (5)

edit

Around the community:

Bloggers Wanted: Training

Your complete guide to Destructoid

Wondering
sickboy \| 4:24 PM on 08.01.2009	9 comments

Something I've wondered lately is this: Why haven't Microsoft added a feature to the 360 where you can download custom content from non-official publishers? For example, on the PC version of Left 4 Dead I get access to a load of user-generated content such as new campaigns, models, sounds, etc but the 360 gets nothing. Why is this? Surely there is some sort of system they could implement whereby users could download at least some custom maps to play on? Yeah there's an issue of storage space, but users would just have to keep their eye on their remaining HDD space before downloading a ton of new content.

Just an idea. Maybe one day something like this will happen.

Is this post awesome? Vote it up!

Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:

Comment with Facebook

Click connect and comment instantly!

Comment with Dtoid

New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds

9 comments | showing # 1 to 9

garison

Because Microsoft wants you to give them your money and they don't get money for free custom shit.

Chris Carter

One reason, I'd suspect, is because the console market is easily controllable. If publishers tried to grab hold of the PC market, people would pirate the hell out of their content: heck, they still do.

Why have a free PC Map-pack when you can charge $10 for it? (Hello, World at War). Why make it possible to create amazing Fallout 3 mods for free when you can charge $10 each? Nearly every RTS also has tools for creating gems like DOtA, yet Halo Wars is charging money for rulesets.

PC: we call them "free updates and mods".
Console: we call it "priced DLC".

thefil

Left 4 Dead specifically: memory constraints. Users have trouble generating content for the limited resources a console has.

Console games in general: legalese and closed environments. Everything has to work; can't have users messing with that.

PKN

It seems like it could work in some form. Unreal Tournament 3 mods could be downloaded on the PS3 but only created on PCs.

ShuperShawn

I'm sure it would proably be a real pain in the ass for Microsoft to make that happen and proably wouldn't be worth their time to do so.

Chris Carter

@Shuper
A lot of the effort would fall on the developer to provide the tools, and the consumer to make the content.

Microsoft's big reason to put the kibosh on it is for $. They clean out on DLC.

Reveille

Microsoft has explained this.

Of course it's bullshit. Microsoft is just notorious for being control freaks with their properties and source code. Thankfully open source is slowly fighting back with Games For Windows failing and other applications on the PC getting more exposure. Don't expect to see that shit happen with the 360 though.

Elsa

This was actually a much bigger issue with the game UT3. On the PS3 there is open access to the internet through a PS3 web browser and PS3 owners could download most of the mods, mutators, maps and added content created by those with the PC version of the game. The PC version did however come with a "PS3 cooker" which converted the PC mods for use by PS3 owners.

When Epic tried to bring this same concept to the Xbox with the release of UT3 on that console, there was just no way it could be done. Xbox is a "closed" system and everything pretty much has to go through Microsoft. Epic was able to offer the promise of DLC to Xbox (where they would package the mods and offer them as DLC on Xbox live), and I'm not sure what happened with that... but I know that very little is offered on Live for free. PS3 owners got a 1GB free DLC pack, but I don't know if anything ever was done for Xbox.

Essentially, the problem is that it's a closed system and therefore Microsoft is able to control content. I don't know that this would ever change unless MS provided an open web browser within the Xbox somewhere, and to be honest, I don't know that they would even want to do that.

(oh, and some of the user-created mods off the web for UT3 were really excellent... I'm really surprised that more games haven't offered this.)

CelicaCrazed

Mostly because Microsoft doesn't understand the concept of "free". Also, I really need to yet UT3 for my PS3!

Comment with Facebook

Click connect and comment instantly!

Comment with Dtoid

New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds

Comments policy

Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?

Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!

All editorial content, including blogs, comments, and forums written by our community, are protected by a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing requiring attribution. Destructoid aka ModernMethod is an independently-run company forged by our childhood love of video games and adulthood hatred mainstream video game press.

Living the dream since March 16, 2006