If there’s one thing that PC versions of (non-Infinity Ward) games have over console versions, it’s the excellent modding community. PC gamers have been able to extend the longevity of their favorite games almost infinitely by designing their own variations, be they serious or funny. It’s something that would be awesome to have on the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2, but Valve has explained why something like that could never happen.
“One of the problems now when you look at a lot of the mods that are made is they can’t run on low-end PCs, they can’t even run on mid-end PCs often — they can only run on high-end PCs. They can’t run on Xbox 360,” explains writer Chet Faliszek. “There’s a lot of work we do to get things to the performance levels that are acceptable for us. You look at a lot of the modders and obviously that’s a very technical thing; you have to know the engine and the tools very well.
“… The coolest thing we could ever do would be to take something that was made by the community and share it with everybody — including Xbox 360 owners. How that happens and what work needs to be done is a little bit complicated.”
And here we thought it was just Microsoft being a c*nt.
