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Sega to upgrade Megadrive / Genesis Steam game hub. Adds Mod Support!
- Thread starter Rlan
- Start date
J
Jotamide
Unconfirmed Member
Oh shit, can Taxman mod S&K3 to have an unofficial definitive version?
It's Stean Workshop support. You don't just load up a rom or w/e.
well, the game is still bound by the constraints of the emulator
so things like widescreen support would be pretty much impossible
unless someone also modded the shit out of the emulator itself. But honestly, at that point, it'd be more work than just remaking the game entirely using his retro engine.
Perhaps if there wouldn't be a shitton of possible legal issues, and if Sega didn't have to pre-approve each monetized mod to make sure that nothing goes horribly wrong.
It's not just a big if, it's a pipe dream.
You're right that they're not listed, but if you look at the video when they're scrolling through the games on the shelf, there are Sonic games in there.
These are issues that are dealt with in every modding community. Valve themselves deal with these very issues when they allow people to monetize mods of their own games (and sega is much bigger than valve).
It's not a pipe dream, there is already a working model of this in place.
There were multiple issues with the paid Skyrim mods like with revenue split, but largely it was because Valve was completely unprepared to deal with the possibility of paid mods including material created by other authors. They tried again with premium versions of DOTA 2 custom maps and failed even harder because the map they were showcasing it with had tons of stuff taken from other mods (and in one case taken from World of Warcraft).
In short it's not the concept of paid mods that have been keeping this from working.
CrAzY FiNgErS
Member
Just noticed this myself. Very disappointed if they don't eventually come to this upgraded version. What else is missing? Toe Jam and Earl games?
Think of how big the part of Sega Europe that's in charge of this is in comparison to Valve.
Also, Valve having made Steam Workshop gives them advantages other developers don't have. So far no other third party developer has successfully monetized mods on Steam Workshop.
Sounds exactly like the concept of paid mods keeping that monetisation model from working. You're silly to think that all the original creators would have theirs mods up there on Steam of their own accord. Can guarantee you some snortfart would upload it instead. So essentially Valve would run into the same exact problem - stolen work being uploaded.
Holy fuckin' shit. This is the one where they sold all the games on Amazon for like $2 a few years ago isn't it?
Holy shit, and you're telling me it's getting MOD SUPPORT!? WTF, my mind is blown. I guess I should go and redeem that Amazon code I bought then. :x
Holy shit, and you're telling me it's getting MOD SUPPORT!? WTF, my mind is blown. I guess I should go and redeem that Amazon code I bought then. :x
I would still expect Sega Europe to be bigger than ~300 employees.
CrAzY FiNgErS
Member
That's right. Perhaps the owners of the game will continue to sell the roms separately on Steam like they did with the old front-end/collection.
shaowebb
Member
This is AWESOME! It never felt as good on PC as the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis collection did on console. Now I get that kind of smooth play plus MODS! I got one I definitely want to add...THE BEST MOD
Oh man, if only we had a model out there for taking down monetized copyrighted material from websites that depend on user-uploaded content...
Perhaps.
But Toejam & Earl 4 is coming out in a few months anyways.
That's the one. I got most of it off of Amazon too, with the rest from a Steam Sale. Can't wait to be able to play them properly now.
The mods aren't copyrighted.
As far as I am aware, SEGA does not own Treasure's games, yet they can be found on that list.
Toejam & Earl is currently part of Steam's Genesis Collection. You can buy and play it right now. Why is it not on the list then...?
Aaron Strife
Banned
Nice. Sega always seemed to be much cooler about the hacking/modding community than others.
Interesting that the Sonic games aren't there... Taxman PC ports would be nice.
Interesting that the Sonic games aren't there... Taxman PC ports would be nice.
Of course then we have the opposite pitfall like on Youtube where there's a problem with fraudulent takedowns.
sixteen-bit
Member
Sega owns the IPs for Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, and Dynamite Headdy.
Sega actually owns the IPs of the games treasure made for the genesis, like Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Heddy, etc.
Much like how they own Wonderboy, but not the game itself.
I didn't say the entirety of Sega Europe. I said the amount of people in charge of this. They're not going to have that many people deal with a glorified emulator.
The model isn't perfect, of course. But it works, and an entire industry has been built around it. Claiming the problem of stolen work being uploaded is insurmountable is silly when there has been a model that has worked for over a decade now.
So what you're saying is you can't connect the dots between the models because of an insignificant, tiny nitpick on your part?
I don't think you're interested in arguing in good faith, then.
A) we're not talking about a glorified emulator, we are talking about UGC.
B) how many people do you think they need to deal with UGC for a glorified emulator?
CrashPrime
Member
Shaders would be God tier. I supported a lot of these roms already with a buy but with shaders I would catch em all.
If you're not interested in discussing this possibility then feel free to leave the conversation.
I'm thinking you don't know what "arguing in good faith" means if you think that applies to conversations about things you find far-fetched.
blackMamba1187
Member
This is an amazing move.
A lot more people than Sega probably has working on this.
Probably not. Rom Hacking websites themselves self-police with just a handful of volunteers. It doesn't take more than one or two people to accomplish what is being discussed - essentially a cert process for small rom hacks, coupled with a dmca-style automatic take-down process for those who feel their work has been stolen.
VolticArchangel
Member
OMG YES! Thank you so much, SEGA.
balladofwindfishes
Member
ROM Hacks... actually legitimately supported by a publisher?
Is this real life?
Is this real life?
Ok, so someone uploads a mod made a decade ago (like a lot of these mods). The modder has since left the community. Some random joe takes the mod he downloaded and uploads it to Steam Workshop and starts making money off of it. What now? The community knows they didn't make it and report it - all Sega can really do is take the reports at face value, or ignore them because there's no real way to legitimately verify if that user made that mod or not. Then Sega's got a niche audience of romhack players mad at them andpeople who didn't make mods potentially making money from them. It's lose-lose. It's not smart to monetize a pre-existing modding community.
Being a part of a website that does rom hacking stuff: it's entirely different if it's monetised.
It really isn't. we're discussing fundamentally the same process. Yes, the monetization aspect makes the issue more weighted, but the vetting process is not dissimilar. And we have working models already that deal with this.
Why do we all seem so sure that this will allow us to upload existing ROM hacks? I mean, games with Steam Workshop support usually also include a way to make the modifications. It's likely that this sort of thing would have its own mod tools, and the format of things might not be entirely compatible with current ROM hacking stuff.