The GreenWolf Report: Report 3: Minecraft for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade Certification

[GreenWolf13]

The GreenWolf Report: Main Thread can be found here.

Hello, and welcome to the third GreenWolf Report! Today's report will cover Minecraft for Xbox 360, and more specifically, why there currently, and most likely never will be, any mods for Minecraft for Xbox 360. I will also go over the certification process for Xbox Live Arcade games, and why it prevents mod makers from making mods for Xbox Live Arcade games.

Let's take a closer look:

Microsoft requires developers to submit games, and updates/patches to games, for certification before they are released. This can delay the release of a game or patch weeks or months, depending on the size of the game or patch. Let's compare Team Fortress 2 for Xbox360 to Team Fortress 2 for PC. The PC version of the game has been updated 321 times since its initial release. The Xbox 360 version of the game has been updated only 4 times since its release, with the latest update being July 21, 2009. Minecraft is already a major exception to this rule. 4J Studios and Mojang have managed to get Microsoft to allow them to release regular updates to Minecraft for Xbox 360, something previously unheard of. So instead of updating once every 6 months, Minecraft for Xbox 360 updates every few weeks, to the point that the Xbox 360 version of the game is not far behind the PC version in terms of content. Certification is not just something that Microsoft does, it is also used by Nintendo and Sony.

Why have certification? Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo hold the philosophy that if games don't undergo a lengthy certification process, they will be full of bugs and crash the console. While in theory this is okay, when put into practice, certification causes major issues. In some cases, certification doesn't even work, allowing major bugs to slip by, and requiring another patch that won't be released for several weeks, even if the developer has the patch ready immediatly. Certification slows down the developement process, as a patch that was ready 3 weeks earlier won't be released until it has gone through certification. Certfication also harms PC gamers, as developers try to release a game for all platforms simultaneously, meaning that the game that was ready for PC 6 months ago, won't be released until the Xbox 360 version has finished certification.

In theory, making a mod for a Xbox 360 game is possible. The Xbox 360 is little more than a glorified PC specialized for gaming. It is completely possible to run Windows, or any other operating system, on an Xbox 360, although this voids your warranty. The problem is that to install mods for a Xbox 360 game, users would be required to hack their Xbox 360's, voiding the warranty. And if they tried to distribute them through Microsoft, they would be thrown out. Any attempt to make mods for a Xbox 360 game would be stamped out by Microsoft, and in some cases, could delve into the realm of the illegal. So the challenge in making mods for Xbox 360 games is not in making the mod itself, but rather in distributing it.

Now we return to Minecraft. While a mod maker could easily port their mod to run on Xbox 360, distributing and installing it is an impossible challenge. So while the Minecraft Xbox 360 version is not very different (in terms of code) from the PC version, the end user has very little control over what they can do with the games they buy.

Because of certification, and the attitudes of console makers, modding is something that is unique to PC gaming (I count Macintoshes as PCs here). PC games allow the end user almost unlimited control over what they can do with the games they buy. The end user can decompile the source, modify it, and redistribute it, something not possible on a console. Unless console makers change their stance on certification, mod makers, and indie game developers, console will continue to be restricted to developers using third-party publishing partners such as EA, Activision, and Ubisoft, and PCs will remain the realm of indie game developers, mod makers, and quick bug fixes.

So next time you're playing Minecraft on Xbox 360 and you wish you could play with mods installed, remember that it's Microsoft and other console makers that keep you from being able to do that.

Sources:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/how-certification-requirements-are-holding-back-console-gaming/

http://www.xbox360cheats.com/blog/why-the-xbox-live-certification-process-is-pointless/

http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Patches

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

I also relied upon TotalBiscuit's YouTube video on certification, and how it affects PC gamers and gaming. When I find the link to the video, I will post it here.

[Lothos]

can

you

separate

and

indent

when

you

are

reporting...

[GreenWolf13]

can

you

separate

and

indent

when

you

are

reporting...

Point made. I will indent and space right now.

[Cheap Shot]

Neat. Bringing the news to me!

[miniboxer]

Why have certification? Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo hold the philosophy that if games don't undergo a lengthy certification process, they will be full of bugs and crash the console. Now compare that to the iOS app store, where anyone can release an app for iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, all with little to no certification. According to Microsoft's theory, these apps and games should be causing the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch to crash all the time, yet these games for iOS devices are some of the most stable games on the market, proving that the certification process is unnecessary. In some cases, certification doesn't even work, allowing major bugs to slip by.

Totally agree with everything, except for this paragraph. the iOS market is heavily regulated by apple, All apps go through extreme testing before allowed on the market. Now the android market is an entirely different story, they actually have a system for reporting apps for removal, due to the fact that anyone can upload anything with little effort. Because of this, the quality margin drops significantly, but you get a lot larger ammount of free, smaller apps.

[Cheap Shot]

Also, iOS apps crash constantly. ALL. THE. TIME. App makers are constantly having to patch crash issues.

[NightKev]

"modding is something that is unique to PC gaming (I count Macintoshes as PCs here)"

Well I would hope so, considering that... they are. PC means "Personal Computer" not "Microsoft Machine"...

[GreenWolf13]

Totally agree with everything, except for this paragraph. the iOS market is heavily regulated by apple, All apps go through extreme testing before allowed on the market. Now the android market is an entirely different story, they actually have a system for reporting apps for removal, due to the fact that anyone can upload anything with little effort. Because of this, the quality margin drops significantly, but you get a lot larger ammount of free, smaller apps.

Didn't know this before. One of the sources I used said that iOS app store was unregulated. Guess I should have done some checking of my own. I will fix this as soon as possible.

Also, iOS apps crash constantly. ALL. THE. TIME. App makers are constantly having to patch crash issues.

I've never had an app crash on me. Never. Compared to the number

of times Minecraft has crashed on me, the apps I use are about 1 million times less buggy.

[racingpro]

Didn't know this before. One of the sources I used said that iOS app store was unregulated. Guess I should have done some checking of my own. I will fix this as soon as possible.

The app store is highly regulated, but yet there are still some apps that slip through that never should be in the app store according to their rules. So its regulated, but only to a point.

I've never had an app crash on me. Never. Compared to the number

of times Minecraft has crashed on me, the apps I use are about 1 million times less buggy.

I personally have had more crashes in the last year or two, but thats mainly because the apps are designed to run on the newer, faster devices and not my now two year old iPod. And jailbreaking doesn't help that fact either, but the benefits make it worth it.

[Cheap Shot]

On the other side, I've had loads of crashes on my ipad 3. iPad apps are crazy crash happy. Even the apple official apps sometimes need to be patched to fix crash bugs.

[racingpro]

Yeah that tends to happen when they just get lazy and port apps rather than writing them to work properly. I just hate it when they build apps to use a lot of memory that I just don't have, memory you'd only find in the iPhone 4S or 5.

[Pulse95]

In other news, the guy on the third floor with two computer screens is not fucking around.

On topic: This is why I like computers rather than consoles just because I can mod computer games easier.

[GreenWolf13]

In other news, the guy on the third floor with two computer screens is not fucking around.

On topic: This is why I like computers rather than consoles just because I can mod computer games easier.

What guy on the third floor?

[Pulse95]

What guy on the third floor?

It's an insiders joke, some people will get it. It is from the Onion News Network.

[Adlersch]

I'm still liking the reports. I like that you cite sources and especially that you use TB's help to learn what you can. Remember to never assume any knowledge on your reader's behalf, though. I would have loved to hear if we knew more about the certification process in detail.