Finally, Volition has stepped into Rockstar territory. After fans had to make do with a lot of scraggly-pot mods like Gentlemen of the Row and stat tweaks in Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: The Third, Volition has finally hunkered down and decided to offer up real tools for real modders so they can get to work and make all the mods that otherwise would have been sold as DLC.
Blues spotted the news from Idolninja, who has a rather lengthy explanation from the Volition team about mod support coming to the Saints Row games, including the upcoming Saints Row IV...
Jeff Thompson, the Studio Director of Programming at Volition, is putting together a package for us containing documentation, file formats, tools, and more on the Saints Row: The Third engine. Myself, Minimaul, and gibbed will be working closely with Jeff over the coming months to use this information to create a robust set of modding tools to supplement our existing ones and creating what is essentially a full sdk for the game! But, that’s not all! Saints Row: The Third is only the beginning!Jeff has confirmed that he will also be digging up all the Saints Row 2 info that he can so we can do the same for it as well, and that this undertaking is actually a “test run” for Saints Row IV.So, what does this actually mean to the average Saints Row player? In simple terms, the modding community will finally be able to create and offer new clothing, new vehicles, new guns, new npcs, new missions, and even new world geometry which will greatly extend the life of the series and enhance the Saints Row games in ways we never even dared to dream of.
Wow, to quote the bearded goat: Yes! Yes! Yes!
One of the things that always held back Saints Row from true greatness was the inability to modify the assets. Even though GTA games arrive every couple of years, in between that time the modding community manages to pump out some amazing stuff, like the Iron Man mods and the Tron mods and the Back to the Future mods. This expands the game's lifetime and also helps boost sales for the original title as gamers get eager to embrace the new content.
The best part about it is that developers still get paid for the game whenever big mods bring in a new audience. It's called the Valve effect or the Newell Paradigm.
Anyway, this is excellent news for gamers, modders, designers and aspiring tinkerers alike. Personally, I always felt Saints Row 2 was one of the very best open world games ever made and I think that Saints Row: The Third had the potential to be one of the best, save for the fact that they stripped out a ton of the cool content. Hopefully, modders can get all the cool stuff from Saints Row 2 jam packed into Saints Row: The Third and then make it the most beastly open-world game yet.
Still, you'll have to be patient and wait for the tools to become available (and no one really knows when that will be). In the meantime, you can check out a hands-on preview of Saints Row IV, courtesy of Gaming Blend's Ryan Winslett.
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