PC Gaming Weekly- PC games modding

Paradox Interactive is doing something only Bethesda Softworks has pulled off so far — bringing the modding features of PC games to consoles.


Last week, the publisher and development house known for grand strategy games such as Crusader Kings and Stellaris announced Paradox Mods, a new platform for modding for PC and Xbox One. Right now, it works with just Surviving Mars (a survival-strategy sim) with 30 mods. You need the Paradox launcher or GOG to use it on PC, and you need a Paradox account to get this working on Xbox One.


I’m excited. Mods are my favorite aspect of PC gaming, and while others who prefer PCs to consoles would rather keep this feature exclusive, I’m all for sharing it. I’d love for every console to have modding. Not only do mods make games more interesting, deeper, or run better, they also help train the next wave of game developers.


Look at Civilization. Jon Shafer was the lead designer for Civilization V. He got his start modding Civ 3. He’s gone on to work at Paradox and then running a Kickstarter for his first game as an indie, Jon Shafer’s At the Gates, which came out last month (I’ll have an interview with him on GamesBeat this weekend). His story is similar to hundreds, if not thousands, of others.


Bring the mods, and let them expand far and wide, I say. Paradox’s efforts should be lauded.