Home made packs: Possible?

[Lei07]

This is the question I am asking... I know its a world apart but if you went to a fansite of any PC game more often than not there are addons and patches availiable made by the general public. With such a large homebrew community Im suprised it hasnt already happend. I realise that it will be a tough task but Im sure someone may be willing, even if its just alternate liveries, music or skins. Just a query more than anything, and may get Sony to make some more!

[infoxicated]

No, it's not possible - the game verifys that it's a legitimate pack. It's the reason the load times aren't much quicker for downloadable content - each time you make use of the content you've download, it's files are checked for consistency.

Shame, isn't it?

Would be quite good if we could have a mod scene going for Wipeout.

[Zerow]

Damn shame. I was really hoping something like this would be available for Pure.

Perhaps it could be done with the next WipEout, which will more than likely be for PS3.

[Lei07]

I hope so. It would be so cool to make a difference to such a beloved franchise. Well, Konami did it with aspects of Snake Eater for PS2 and there are plenty of Xbox modders out there that have had their work posted as official downloads, maybe in a future instalment Sony and SL will follow suit.

[Lion]

how did the guys behind those international music packs (the site name escapes me) get theirs signed or whatever it needs?
if a group of people, for example an international wipeout fansite, were to apply to the right people at sony, would it be possible to assemble a pack and have it signed by sony as a community bonuspack?

[lunar]

I dont really understand how this sort of thing works. Can it lead to cheating? I read on Xlink forums that people play Halo with modded games, pretending to use the real game, and thus have extra powers and cheats. We wouldn`t want any risk of this sort of thing, at any price. Or do I misunderstand?

[Lion]

if the game checks for a digital signiture to indicate that it's sanctioned content then there's far reduced danger of cheats working their way in... and the modifyable content in pure wouldn't lend itself to this anyway.

in order for a pack to be sanctioned content it would need one of these digital signitures, and at this point the only people I know of that are able to sign content are sony

that being the case, if the content could be checked and found as safe, then handed on to the right people for signing, there is no technical reason why a community-produced package should not be possible.

the way I see it these are the problems:
we don't know who would need contacting
even if we did, I imagine there's a fairly big management tree that would need traversing for this whole idea to be approved
someone would have to spend some time checking/assembling the content before signing
someone - or a team of someones - would have to test the new content in various combinations with the existing content
all of the above would cost money, and I imagine that this is the biggest hurdle - gamesradar, puma, coke, wire05, scifi - these guys probably all paid to advertise their brands. I doubt that we'd be able to pool enough funds to make it a worthwhile enterprise from sony's standpoint

it would be an awesome contest (categories for liveries, music, and menu skins) and the prize would be the immortalisation of the content as an addon pack.
but sadly I don't see it happening

[Lance]

So you guys are hoping that Sony [!!!] will allow any content that they do not have complete control of? Doesn't seem likely in view of their recent history.

[lunar]

this recent article mentions "user generated content" for future Sony software, but it`s not exactly clear what the interviewer means by it, and the answer from the Sony guy is even more confusing.

there`s a mention of Wipeout Pure downloadables further down the page, and how this model will continue. Taken in the context of the rest of the article, though, it seems you`ll have to pay for your downloads in future. Whether this is better than having sponsored stuff we`ll have to wait and see.

Overall this seems to confirm Lance`s theory that Sony will want more control in future.

My favourite excerpts are:

1.

"Consumers are already making it clear that they not only want [content], but they demand choice in how they experience and purchase their entertainment content."

Translation: "We are making it clear that we`re not going to let you have the same deal you used to have. If you people think that in the future you`re going to get away with paying for a whole game just once, at the initial point of purchase, you`ve got another thing coming."

2.

"We have to stop thinking in terms of a product launch being a finite offering."

Translation: "You people are going to have stop thinking in terms of buying a game being a finite thing. You`re going to have to stump up for that second Feisar skin, sonny."

I guess we`ll just have to wait and see. Next-gen gaming is looking very expensive at the moment (look at the potential cost of buying new cars in the upcoming PS3 Gran Turismo game). Homebrew mods are starting to look quite attractive, for sure, as they would be free I suppose, but I can`t see it happening in this climate.

[Lance]

I think your translations are right on the money [in two ways].

[Dominator]

LOL, love the translations lunar

[Distrupto]

this recent article mentions "user generated content" for future Sony software, but it`s not exactly clear what the interviewer means by it, and the answer from the Sony guy is even more confusing.

there`s a mention of Wipeout Pure downloadables further down the page, and how this model will continue. Taken in the context of the rest of the article, though, it seems you`ll have to pay for your downloads in future. Whether this is better than having sponsored stuff we`ll have to wait and see.

Overall this seems to confirm Lance`s theory that Sony will want more control in future.

My favourite excerpts are:

1.

"Consumers are already making it clear that they not only want [content], but they demand choice in how they experience and purchase their entertainment content."

Translation: "We are making it clear that we`re not going to let you have the same deal you used to have. If you people think that in the future you`re going to get away with paying for a whole game just once, at the initial point of purchase, you`ve got another thing coming."

2.

"We have to stop thinking in terms of a product launch being a finite offering."

Translation: "You people are going to have stop thinking in terms of buying a game being a finite thing. You`re going to have to stump up for that second Feisar skin, sonny."

I guess we`ll just have to wait and see. Next-gen gaming is looking very expensive at the moment (look at the potential cost of buying new cars in the upcoming PS3 Gran Turismo game). Homebrew mods are starting to look quite attractive, for sure, as they would be free I suppose, but I can`t see it happening in this climate.

So that means things like the current download packs will not be free as they are right now, except for maybe Coke/Puma type things?

[lunar]

Gosh, I don`t know any details, but that`s the way I understand it will work on the PS3, from reading the whole article. I would hope that if we had to pay for some downloadable add-ons then there wouldn`t be any more corporate-sponsored ones, at least.

[replicashooter]

If you are running the game from Memory Stick you can get a utility that unpacks the WAD data file and replaces the songs with tracks of your choice.

I would love to be able to do this with the external song packs but apparently they are fully encrypted and need to be decrypted before the unpacker works.

Has there been any progress in the decyption field?

<hands self Ralph Wiggum award for using the same word 3 times>

[Rapier Racer]

Oh great now its going to cost me 40/50 quid for a game where half of it is missing because they want me to buy the rest at an additional cost

[Lance]

^Thinks he used the same word seven times.^

[Asayyeah]

info or intox ?, i ve read into a computer magazine that Sony will lower the price of the basic version ps3 from 421 € to 335 €

[lunar]

Oh great now its going to cost me 40/50 quid for a game where half of it is missing because they want me to buy the rest at an additional cost

I hope not. Pure was amazingly good value for money as a game, and if this means we just get added life out of our games, and the original purchase is still good value, it might not be a bad thing. I wouldn`t complain about paying a fiver now for a couple of new tracks for Pure. Perhaps it means SL could potentially carry on making new packs as long as there is a market for them. That wouldn`t be a bad thing and we can`t expect them to do it for nothing. Maybe also I`m just an incurable optimist though.

The problem is how will they ever get rid of the suspicion that stuff is being held back on the original game to be sold as "extras" later.

The whole thing is probably just a Trojan Horse to change the way we view our acquisition of games, so that in the end they can force us into a more profitable system for them. Well, that`s their job, and PS3 Wipeout will probably still rock, but it just might be a bit more expensive than we`d hoped for. I`m no accountant, but if Pure sold a million copies, as the Sony man said, then surely there can`t be much need to make extra money by holding content back, if games sell well enough.

[Lion]

since the ps3 wipeout is not a release title, hopefully that means a non-staggered global release
which hopefully translates to one version only...
which hopefully translates to all download (or community) packs working with all (one) versions of the game...

that would definitely be nice

[Sausehuhn]

@ Asa

as far as I know the basic version won't be available in Europe.
PS3 in Europe = 600€* (at least in Germany)




*if there's no price drop going around.