A Mod Supported XBox Live Marketplace Would Help Microsoft Beat Sony

Microsoft needs to bridge the gap between gamers of the PC and the XBox 360. It is my belief that the XBox 360 could impact the world of gaming and get a definitive stronghold on the console war if it supported uploading of player developed content and modification ("mods"). While at times contraversial, the ability to mod a game often creates a loyal fanbase and pumps life into leftover content long after the buzz dies down. This attracts new users to the particular game and resurges the interests of old ones.

The skeptics might say: the good people of Microsoft have already done this w/XBox Live Marketplace (additional content is available for pay-per-downloads)? And what about the money? Most modding is free, what are you, some kind of cyber-anarchist? To all of these concerns I would encourage executives and Xboxers alike to consider expanding the pie (via Rogers and Ury style). Try to see the win-win aspect of allowing a marketplace of not only downloadable pay-per-click content, but of robust consumer uploading, trading and creating. Take a look at the possibilities:

First of all, any player uploads would have to be created via a construction set downloaded for a fee from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Each game w/constructable content capabilities would have to be equipped with its own construction set. So if you want to create a new game-type (such as tag team, hang-gliding) or new boards for the less-than-spectacular Perfect Dark Zero, or a new suit of weapon-disintergating mithral armor for the incredible, open-world epic, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, you would first need to purchase a construction set for that particular game via download for $9.95 (suggested retail price). Right out of the gate, Microsoft has already made an extra 20% per game. When the construction set is downloaded, Microsoft and the game developer can institute all types of legal and creative controls, such as forbidding explicit content (avoiding a repeat of the hot coffee incident), tagging the set with a digital signature so they can track who put what out there, and arranging for the appropriate terms of use to be agreed to.

Second, we would avoid the problem of waiting on Studios to spend their precious time and resources creating downloadable content. Often these add ons never come quick enough and are disappointing when they do. Case in point, the Splinter Cell series - while new content came out eventually for the various incarnations of this game, it was often underwhelming. The studios find it much more desireable to put out sequals, threequals and fourquals rather than develop new boards for the game they sold you a year ago. Hence the game dies when the new incarnation comes out, and for fan favorites the newer incarnation is not always as appealing as the latter (not every sequal can be a Halo 2 - and storywise the original was better). Allowing players to build off of a console construction set, saves the studios the headache of having to meet demands in this way (even if it is a small demand) and can rather have the option to put out "professional/commercial mods" for download in addition to the player created content. The result? A world of abundant, compatible and creative content that can stimulate revenue and keep things fresh.

Third, Xbox live marketplace is not really a marketplace; it is a shopping network. When I think of marketplace, I think of Ebay - a place where anyone can sell anything to anybody (just about). Why not turn Xbox Live Marketplace into a revenue machine like Ebay? Follow me: players can create their own content and then upload it into specific categories. These catagories would break down into a heirarchy such as: (1) game; (2) type of content, i.e. (a) character; (b) board; (c) item, weapon, apparel, ability; or (d) transportation. The uploading player is charged a fee for uploading (similar to the listing fee that Ebay charges). This puts the uploader in privity of contract with XBox Live Marketplace and provides protection/certainty for Microsoft, purchasers, and others (note that XBox live is fundamentally different and more intimate than Ebay b/c of the membership requirements). Potential customers can enter terms in a search field or browse categories. They then purchase the content they want for the price set by the uploader (price of content could also be regualted by Microsoft who could dictate ceilings depending on type of content). Microsoft charges a % for the transaction fee and the exchange is made.

The result: (1) Microsoft surges revenues from XBox Live; (2) Uploaders can make extra cash and have an arena to create; (3) gamers get new content constantly; (4) publishers are free to make all of the sequals or additional content they want and have a hungry market waiting for them; and (5) the console gaming community sees a true freedom that it has never experienced before akin to that found on the PC. I think that in the console war, such a move would give Microsoft the leg up in the next (now) generation of gaming and help them to beat Sony, who is due to launch their new console in November 2006.