Capcom has suddenly signaled they are taking a hardline approach when it comes to mods.
As reported by Tech4Gamers, Capcom’s Taro Yahagi went up on a panel called “The Anti-Cheat and Anti-Piracy Measures in PC Games.” This was part of Capcom’s Open Conference Professional RE:2023.
Yahagi said, quite bluntly, “For the purposes of anti-cheat and anti-piracy, all mods are defined as cheats.”
Now, video game companies’ attitudes to mods vary with each studio and game, and there’s no real consensus on this issue. For example, Bethesda encourages their fans to make mods for their games, and that has continued with their latest release, Starfield. If Capcom represents the other opposite end of that spectrum, Rockstar falls around the middle. Rockstar does ban and monitor mod use in Grand Theft Auto Online, but they actually tolerate some mods. They tolerate the mods some players use to role play the NPC roles in Grand Theft Auto Online, without compromising on the fact that this mod also breaks their terms and conditions for use.
As for Capcom’s position, Yahagi’s next statement might shed light on what they are concerned about. In his words, “There are a number of mods that are offensive to public order and morals.”
While Yahagi did not say it directly, he seems almost certainly to be referring to an incident last August, where a nude Chun Li mod was streamed online in the middle of a Street Fighter 6 tournament. As reported by IGN, the mod did not come from one of the players, but was owned by one of the tournament organizers, in Corner2Corner.
This tournament was not part of the Capcom Pro Tour competitive fighting game series, but that just makes it more worrisome for Capcom. While Capcom can regulate the behavior of the tournament organizers for their official tournaments, they have no control over independent tournaments. But of course, those unofficial tournaments can still harm their reputation like this.
Capcom has a clear reason to distrust modders when it comes to Street Fighter and their other fighting games. To a lesser extent, they would also have concerns for their other online video games, such as Monster Hunter, Exoprimal, and the Resident Evil games’ Raid modes.
While many fans will point out the usefulness for mods for accessibility, and as a way for fans to express themselves, Capcom’s position is completely understandable. It was based on something that actually happened, and has already affected them.
If the Capcom FGC want to sway the company away from this position, they are going to have to come up with something very persuasive to convince them it won’t happen again. We will see how this will affect Capcom and their relationship with fans, as Capcom follows through on this sudden hardline stance with action.
