One of the complaints some PC gamers have against Epic Games Store is the lack of support for mods. What good is a game like Civilization VI or Fallout IV if you can’t bend, spindle, mutilate, and put “Macho Man” Randy Savage skins on character models? Epic Games hasn’t been against mods per se, and mod support has always been a part of their roadmap, albeit a feature which has been slow to come out. But today, the first step towards that feature has been taken.
Starting today, Pirhana Games’ Mechwarrior 5 will now have a modding kit available for download for existing owners of the game. Any new purchases of the game will also have the kit automatically added to their account. The Mechwarrior 5 official blog made it clear that the mod functionality is in a beta test state at the moment, but also went on to lay out some of the mods that are currently available for download.
Epic Games added mod support to the roadmap back in March 2019. There has been no indication of when the “beta” period will be over, and mods being fully supported will happen. There’s also been no indication yet of any other games joining the beta program, despite several potential candidates. But this is progress, and it stands to reason that Epic Games (or more likely developers and publishers) will be making further announcements for who is going to be joining the beta problem.
In the meantime, Mechwarrior 5 players will be nobly serving as the first test subjects. How well mods behave with EGS instead of Steam will doubtlessly inform the progress of the mod support rollout. And given the degree of community involvement with mods, as well as their potential to discover new talent for game studios, this is one feature that Epic Games will be working hard to bring to a successful deployment.
