Last week, a presentation was uploaded to Capcom R&D’s YouTube channel as part of the company’s open conference. The focus on the presentation was focused on the RE Engine’s built-in anti-cheat and anti-piracy measures intended for PC games.
During the video, it’s noted that games can be cracked in a day and paid DLC will be distributed for free without anti-cheat and anti-piracy measures. Needless to say, it’s understandable that Capcom views the damage caused by cheating and piracy as unobservable since it’s not really possible to do a control test with the situation, but it’s particularly interesting to note how mods are to be seen by Capcom as no different than cheating.
“All mods are defined as cheating, except when they are officially supported,” said the slide in the Capcom R&D video. “What they are doing internally is no different than cheating.”
It’s also noted that the increased customer support load that comes with Capcom having to step in to deal with malicious mods have the potential to take away from development costs. Under normal circumstances, these costs were supposedly intended for creating high quality games.
Additionally, it’s said that anti-cheat and anti-piracy measures are necessary to protect the company’s future profits and reputation.
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The presentation declares that, unlike consoles, PC games essentially allow users to do whatever they want with the games, which is why these games are often released with anti-pirate software. We haven’t heard much in terms of Capcom shutting down mods or other fan projects, but that is likely to change at some point considering that it was recently revealed that the company aims to make the PC their main platform for their games.
Assuming that this is really Capcom’s stance, this could potentially have some major repercussions for the FGC in the near future considering how intertwined the community has become with modding.
Though Street Fighter 6 was only released about five months ago, fans have already created some cool costumes for the playable roster. Of course, it should be noted that these appearances are only client side, meaning that online opponents won’t be able to see the costume unless they too implement the mods on their device.
Games like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 have officially had their development concluded many years ago, but some particularly tech-savvy fans have been keeping the game alive by developing new content (such as new characters) for these games.
Overall, as Capcom becomes more focused on the PC as their main platform, they could more often approach some of the mods for games like Street Fighter 6 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with the mindset that “all mods are defined as cheating.” If that happens, they may be issuing cease and desists orders more often.
While all of this could potentially be alarming to fans of certain mods, we’ll just have to see how things play out from here and see if Capcom makes those sort of moves.
