Why you can't mod Battlefield 3

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 6 July, 2011

It would be too hard, says EA.

EA has explained why Battlefield 3 does not feature modding tools.

"As of now we are not going to make any modding tools, no," EA senior vice president Patrick Soderlund confirmed to German website GameStar.de.

Why? Because Battlefield 3 is so complex, creating a mod would be too hard.

"If you look at the Frostbite Engine and how complex it is, it's going to be very difficult for people to mod the game," Soderlund explained.

"Because of the nature of the set-up of levels, the destruction, it's quite tricky.

"So we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • DB2k #1 11 months ago

    pfft. people like a challenge.

  • Erinan #2 11 months ago

    Well, we all know it's bullshit and they probably want to prevent people from creating customised maps/weapons so they can sell more DLC.

  • J0rdan_KZ #3 11 months ago

    That's slightly condesending. Some of the best video games I've ever played have originally started off as mods. This kinda seems more that EA are wanting the community to shy away from mods and instead pay for their map packs.

  • Bagpuss #4 11 months ago

    Dont whats more insulting, saying no one is clever enough to use the Mod tools, or them thinking were dumb enough to believe this is anything other than a cynical way to control the DLC market....

    no doubt, once they have made their rip off extra profits from DLC, Mod tools will be quietly released in a couple of years.....

  • bumyoghurt #5 11 months ago

    That's a slap in the face from a duelling glove if ever I heard one. Skiddies assemble!

  • DDevil #6 11 months ago

    Came in here to cry "bullshit" at this statement, but I see that has already been covered.

  • MaxiSleep #7 11 months ago

    By god EA always go back to being hatefull pricks dont they.

  • SnyTer #8 11 months ago

    Challenge Accepted

  • FireMonkey #9 11 months ago

    Plenty of games without modding tools and documentation have been hacked and modded by some extremely clever people out there. If they can change the way a game works without any tools, then surely they would be able to use the actual editor.

    I think that DICE would have liked to release the tools, but EA have said no as they think they will make less money from selling maps (or versions of already released maps modified for different gameplay modes)if the users can do it themselves.
    Edited by FireMonkey at 06/07/11 @ 10:06

  • mkreku #10 11 months ago

    I have a feeling the modders will prove them wrong..

  • Jdm79 #11 11 months ago

    "Children put the mod tools down! You might hurt yourself.




    …(or ruin our plan to make more money from DLC than the entire GDP of China)."

  • nakedlunch #12 11 months ago

    I saw the iCEnhancer stuff the other day, along with plenty of other mods for games which dramatically alter the look and gameplay in pretty profound ways, and I have plenty of faith in people to be able to get their heads around BF3. It does look like a commercial move but I think providing modding tools generates a lot of goodwill among the community.

  • Shikasama #13 11 months ago

    Hopefully not a single living organism on the planet believes that statement.

    I hate the suits from companies like EA and Activision but I could at least gather some begrudging respect and inevitability about things if they just told the sodding truth about things like this.

  • Spekingur #14 11 months ago

    Hey, EA, you could have used mod tools to discover really good modders, contacted them and then employed them. Your loss!

  • Scopeh #15 11 months ago

    Translation= We actually cant be arsed to make a modding tool for the community because we would rather make DLC to milk you all.

  • TheTingler #16 11 months ago

    I think pretty much everyone here sees through the bollocks. You guys have restored my faith in commenters!

  • paketep #17 11 months ago

    Why you can't mod BF3: otherwise we couldn't sell you BS map packs for $15

  • rottingyoda #18 11 months ago

    Thats garbage EA and Im not buing your day one DLC

  • bad09 #19 11 months ago

    Translation: "We think we can rape the arse of BF3 with gamings cancer DLC so why on earth would we give out the modding tools PC gamers are used to so you can make free content?"

    Just a heads up EA I very rarely buy gamings cancer DLC (especially the outright shite you milk games with) and games that lock out mods automatically go right down the wishlist for me nowadays.

  • FireMonkey #20 11 months ago

    This is an interesting read that probably makes more sense than 'we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod'.

    http://www.bfeditor.org/forums/index.php...

  • Tyronne #21 11 months ago

    Utter rubbish, many mods on the pc end up being better than the games which spawned them.One thing I would never say about the modding community is that they are not capable of releasing a mod for BF3 as IF they do release the modding tools , it would be less than 24 hours before something is playable.

  • cw- #22 11 months ago

    Should take a page out of valves book, release the mod tools and run competitions to get people to make maps for you, and then release it as DLC! (although, Valve release this DLC for free .............)

  • atarianer #23 11 months ago

    why even mod ? i love vanilla !

  • Inmediasress #24 11 months ago

    You know that's one reason the publishers shy away from the whole of PC gaming since the DLC cancer made it's way in to the gaming world.
    If the community demands mod support how do they get them to by their overpriced DLC??? Oh yes they don't give mod support.
    I still miss the expansion discs of old times at least you paid more but usually if not always got more than a few rehased skins and maps.
    Not to mention how people forgot that they are paying for items that diablo randomly generated for you in the hundreds.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 06/07/11 @ 11:44

  • M4RV #25 11 months ago

    I love how developers nowadays think of gamers as retarded folks. Not only that, but they have no problem saying it. Ohhh well...

  • Wyrm #26 11 months ago

    BF3 will now be modded to fuck by clever people.

  • funkateer #27 11 months ago

    I guess that means their content creation tools are not up to par for public release.

  • coojam #28 11 months ago

    It's actually extremely costly to properly support a modding community, though one could argue it pays for itself in the long run.

    Got to ask how happy DICE are about this though... how many staff members got their jobs there because they started out as modders?

  • bumyoghurt #29 11 months ago

    I'm going to let people flex their neg rep muscles now and state that I think DLC is a good idea, speaking from a console POV. There's something exciting about expanding a game you love without having to lift your arse off of the sofa. I don't think it is the evil some people make it out to be. Overpriced, maybe, but take Black ops for example- they have easily swatted aside the claims that map packs/DLC are just ideas that were too crap to make it into the final game.
    I understand that PC mods tend to be quality though.

  • Uncompetative #30 11 months ago

    no DICE.

  • Benno #31 11 months ago

    I cant wait for this game to get modded now.

  • G-Lord #32 11 months ago

    Bethesda/id said the same thing for Rage, but they have changed their mind. So there might still be hope.

  • VibratingDonkey #33 11 months ago

    DICE didn't think helicopters were possible in BF1942, then Desert Combat happened. IIRC that game didn't have official tools, modders made them themselves. A lot of them are, or have moved on to become professional developers (Alan Kertz for instance). Implying that the modding community isn't capable of figuring things out is a bit condescending. Sounds like an emergency lie covering up the real reason why it's not a priority. I.e. creating a direct revenue stream through DLC > mods.

  • tankboi #34 11 months ago

    Basically their tools are an embarrassing mess that they don't want the public getting hold of.

    Considering a lot of modders work in the industry it seems a little patronising to say the engine is 'too complex'.

    Shame on you EA, DICE. Seeing how fantastic the MODS of BF2 are...this makes for very sad news indeed. Good job Project Reality is being released for ARMA2 this month! Can't wait :)

  • orangpelupa #35 11 months ago

    err...

    it wont be hard if EA give MOD TOOLS.....
    or at lease not pack the files to weird packer or compressor....

    EDIT:
    btw DLC in pc is always free, so mod wont eat dlc market
    Edited by orangpelupa at 06/07/11 @ 15:30

  • L0cky #36 11 months ago

    Sounds like the design of their pipeline is pretty terrible.

    All of the reasons they give are valid (see FireMonkey's post); but it leaves you wondering why they designed it that way in the first place. Obviously when they started designing the tools/pipeline for FB1.5 they made a decision up front to sacrifice modding; so they couldn't have seen much value in it. Changing their minds now would be very costly (in development terms); and when they have DLC in mind then it would be compelling not to bother.

    Instead of saying "we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for people to make a mod"; they should have said "we think it's going to be too big of a challenge for us to release modding tools". If they had said that, at least then they wouldn't be slapping their biggest supporters in the face.

    It's a shame. I'm sure moddable games like the Quakes, Half-Lifes, Unreals and the earlier BF games made many sales long after release, specifically because of what their modding communities were producing.

  • mrblonde #37 11 months ago

    WHY cant you mod battlefield3 ?

    Because the "high end" graphics card buyers, p.c. game market is dead and consoles will be the place, where as usual nearly all the sales will be. simple as. Also with a level playing field in MP it will offer the best experience.

  • KDR_11k #38 11 months ago

    If you can make it then you can mod it. Modders can have the same skills as professional game developers.

  • ukimpact2010 #39 11 months ago

    yer this is rubbish , farcry 2 has same sort of engine yet it had mod tools for all xplatforms , whats the difference a tool for destruction and colour the distruction is say a wall then colour it blue to set it to destruct ,,,,, yer right ea you just want to sell more Comapany made DLC rather than let the community make maps which would be better than your own ,
    just because you hire some noob from the game industry dosnt mean they make better maps than player created maps
    would of been good but na
    and u say yer but they prob make maps with too much memory usage , so what happened to a memory bar never mind not going to happen as EA and all the major labels want you to spend $200 on the game dlc and that even before YOU pay for the connection to the internet to play one word PATHETIC !!!

  • cheeky_BILLY #40 11 months ago

    Some of the best games I've ever played were BF1942/BF2 mods. Desert Combat and especially Forgotten Hope were both miles ahead of the original games.

    Blimey, imagine FH on the Frostbite 2 engine. A WW2 with destruction. I can't think of anything better! I'm getting a bit fed up with all these modern era shooters. Getting too samey

    Shame no one will be able to do a decent WW2 shooter on Frostbite 2.

  • hiddenranbir #41 11 months ago

    Haha, so when Creative Assembly say this, everyone is all, "wow so honest god bless them, people just never understand how hard it is"

    But when EA and Dice say it for their game it is all, "lol bs"


    Why can't we just accept that for both companies they've made the conscious decision to make it difficult to mod from the get go. It isn't as if games like Skyrim or EU are exactly simple.

    edit: enjoy the negging for pointing out the hypocrisy
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 06/07/11 @ 23:39

  • darc #42 11 months ago

    The only video on this site that isn't preceded by that Battlefield 3 ad...

  • TagemandBagem #43 11 months ago

    They already shot themselves in the foot by claiming there will be no mod support because no one makes mods anymore. Considering Project Reality, a mod for BF2, is still going strong and churning out awesome maps and content.

    It's almost as transparently bullshit as IW's 'P2P is better than dedicated servers!"

  • mukki #44 11 months ago

    Somewhat insulting statement... Ok so it 'might' be complex to mod but let people try if they feel inclined to! Maybe tool would have been to expensive to develop? Or maybe they don't want to open up the engine?

  • xmifi #45 11 months ago

    Ahh i get it. Dice is to smart and we are to Dumb.

  • HeNiCiDe1988 #46 11 months ago

    bollocks, complete bollocks they just saying it because they want to have a monopoly on skins, weapons and other stuff which they will charge us for. Nice try though EA because it also with this line works as further hyping of the game, but we all know your lying about the modding!

  • DavidSebb #47 11 months ago

    It would be too hard, says EA.
    LOL, now thats just insulting to some people and i know for a fact that a statement like that given the mods right now will drive some people to create content that will blow EA away to the center of the galaxy.

  • apoc_reg #48 11 months ago

    Telling PC community you cant because it would be hard... red... rag... bull

    is EA really this dumb!?

  • hiddenranbir #49 11 months ago

    Clearly none of you understand how hard it is to make games. If you did you'd be praising them for being honest like certain people were for Shogun 2 not being moddable either.

    These games are just so complicated and the tools are just soo hard.