Speaking of what’s to come, I love speculating on the future. Who knows what it’ll bring, but there’s always a spark of excitement when you guess something right (or if something comes completely out of left-field to surprise). With this new series, I’ll be looking to see how well I can predict the future by marking games revealed at major gaming events as either mod - meaning that I believe there’ll be a significant scene for it - or not - meaning there won’t be.
In this first part, I’ll stick purely with games that are releasing in 2024, so as not to completely overwhelm you.
Ready? Let the speculation begin!
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO
It’s been over 10 years since the last entry in the legendary fighting game series DRAGON BALL Z: Budokai Tenkaichi and someone must have collected the Dragon Balls and made a wish to Shenlong because DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is the smooth, stylish sequel fans have been waiting for. DB:SZ takes everything fans of the franchise love and turns it up to 11: There’s a bigger roster, there’s more abilities, there’s more stages. Really, there’s more of everything. However, that’s not going to stop you lot from adding even more and if I’m honest - I can’t wait! The Dragon Ball community here on Nexus is already thriving and with DB:SZ being made in Unreal, it’s a match made in Heaven.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II
Now I don’t want to be branded a heretic, but I’ve never loved Space Marines. Their bulky, over-the-top armour and macho personality just isn’t for me (I say as I prime my newest Tau army). However, the first Space Marine game was a real hit and saw a significant amount of praise from both the press and the players. It's not been since Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior that players were put directly into the (very large) boots of characters from the iconic franchise and allowed to experience the world in their own way.
Despite the hype around the title however, Space Marine 2 will be using a proprietary engine, so modding capabilities are unknown until we get our hands on it. In the meantime, we can look back at how the first Space Marine game did: 42 mods on our site since launch - not great.
Persona 3: Reload Episode Aigis
Is it cheating to include DLC on a list of upcoming game releases? I don’t know and I don’t care. I love the Persona series and I’ll take any opportunity to encourage people to play it (and mod it).
Episode Aigis is set to be a near-perfect recreation of the original game’s ‘The Answer’ DLC. By that, I mean it also has all the positive and negative elements that fans have come to know and love (or hate). While we don’t have loads to go off from the Gamescom trailer, those who have had the chance to play the DLC speak positively about it - and the implementation of Persona 5’s Joker is a fun tie-in - even if it doesn’t make that much sense.
When it comes to modding, the Persona 3: Reload Nexus page is unfortunately looking a bit sparse. However, I’m hoping that this new release injects the community with excitement to change, edit and adapt the originally divisive expansion to however they see fit. You'll have seen my (clearly unbiased) prediction above.
Unknown 9: Awakening
I’m pleased for events like Gamescom, as before this showcase Unknown 9: Awakening’s title was very apt. Now, we know quite a bit more about the game! This single-player adventure game sees players take on the role of Haroona and go on a world-spanning quest to discover checks notes “hidden” “knowledge” (cue the oohs and ahhs)!
Sure, the story doesn’t seem particularly unique but the gameplay brings something somewhat new, as you’ll be able to use mystical powers to control NPCs, forcing them to - for example - shoot down their own allies rather than you.
Unknown 9: Awakening is being made in Unreal Engine, so there’s definitely the possibility for a modding scene, but I’m not expecting anything mind blowing here.
Infinity Nikki
Did you know Infinity Nikki is part of a series of ‘Nikki’ dress-up games across iOS and Android? It’s interesting to see so many mobile-first developers taking on the PC and console space in recent years (CyGames’ Granblue Fantasy -Relink- and Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong immediately come to mind) and it’s interesting that Infold has decided to take Nikki into the open-world adventure space.
At the moment, there’s not loads of information to go off, other than the trailer being almost too cute to comprehend but it certainly looks like it’ll be a hit for any life-sim aficionados interested in the following:
- Dressing up characters in the most fashionable outfits you can find
- Spending time with an adorable cast of fantastical creatures
- Being cosy in beautiful environments
- Riding trains over lakes
It also looks, almost certainly, moddable. Anything that lets you change the outfits of your character natively will be immediately preyed upon by modders anyway, so even if it doesn’t officially support modding, I’d be very surprised if someone didn’t create outfits corresponding to every Sailor Moon character within six months of it’s launch.
Batman Arkham Shadow VR
As a proud owner of an Oculus Rift S, I would like to say with confidence that VR is still ultra-popular in 2024 (please ignore the fact that the same Rift S has been sat in a box…somewhere and untouched for months). What I can say with confidence is that Batman - and the Arkham series in particular - will always remain popular. Now, this latest entry probably isn’t what most fans wanted, but at least it’s something! Plus, I imagine that some news outlets will have a field-day claiming that this game really makes you feel like Batman. For us though, what’s important is whether or not we can crack it open and get our hands dirty and the jury’s still out on that one. Either way, Batman fans are eating but it’s still to be determined if the eating is good or not.
Path of Exile II
The original Path of Exile was a sleeper hit for many, winning a BAFTA for Evolving Game back in 2020 and being praised across the board for taking the foundation that Diablo laid and building a strong title on top of it.
Now Grinding Gear Games are back with a sequel that’s bound to be exciting for fans of the game. However, those fans are few and far between on Nexus, with only three mods created for the title. That’s not to say that the community doesn’t want mods; as their dedicated forums are regularly visited by players asking for mod support but it’s unlikely to come considering a large chunk of the monetisation of Path of Exile comes from microtransactions.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
It’s been a while since Indiana appeared in a video game that didn’t see him made of LEGO or taking out Camp Cuddle in Fortnite and I'm pleased to see him! This new title should fit nicely in the film canon and sees the action hero travel across the world taking on baddies to protect the mysterious Great Circle. It’s also made by our friends at Bethesda and we already know how popular their usual games are with the modding community so I’m feeling pretty confident about my prediction. The only snake in the pit (get it?) is that it’s a linear adventure game akin to the Uncharted or the Plague Tale series. Now, that’s not to say that modders won’t love to get their hands on it, and it definitely looks great from a screen-archery perspective but it could limit just how popular it is with mod authors as there’s likely to be less freedom when it comes to story or gameplay elements.
InZOI
InZOI is a brand new life-sim from KRAFTON, who, believe it or not, published PUBG. InZOI however - as far as I’m aware - contains no guns or battle-royale elements and instead seeks to dethrone The Sims as the ultimate escape from the mundane humdrum of daily life. How does it do this? Oh, by putting you into the humdrum of a virtual life, but now you can look like whatever you want!
InZOI has an advantage already. Firstly, it’s made in Unreal engine, meaning that pack mods should be a straightforward process. Secondly, publisher KRAFTON have spoken positively about modding, with the game's producer and director, saying: "inZOI is committed to encouraging easier mod creation and artistic expression from players”. Exciting stuff!
Goat Simulator Remastered
Remember a decade ago when goat scream videos were all the rage? Well, you too can be transported back in time to 2014 and relive the wonders of Goat Simulator once again thanks to this remastered version. I’ll be upfront about it, I never loved the Goat Simulator games. The sandbox was a bit too free for me and I could never decide what to do. I won’t deny though that Goat Sim does have its fans and I’m happy for them.
When it comes to modding however, there’s four total mods on Nexus for Goat Simulator 3 and three of them are save files: It’s not looking great. Maybe when you make a game that nearly lets you do anything there’s simply nothing left to do?
Age of Mythology Retold
The beloved title from 2002 returns this year with a beautifully remastered version. This unique spin on the classic ‘Age’ formula sees players manage mythological beings as well as ancient civilisations and while it never hit the same highs as the Age of Empires series, it definitely has its highlights.
Being a modder is sort of the same as having divine powers, giving you the ability to manipulate and change anything as you see fit according to your will. For that reason alone, I can see modders flocking to the title. It’s not only that though as the Bang Engine returns from Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition and fans are already familiar with that, and the theme of Age of Mythology lends itself more towards custom content (can someone add the Orisha Pantheon please).
And with that, I’ll leave it there for Part One! There’s definitely some very strong contenders coming up in the latter part of this year that show promise for a dedicated modding scene and I hope that a lot of my ‘Not’s end up wrong. For now though, it’s a waiting game.
Speaking of waiting, I’ll get started on Part Two of this article where I’ll look at 2025 and beyond. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on these upcoming releases down below: Do you expect a scene for these titles? Will you be creating some mods yourself for some of them? Or, are you expecting them to pass on by?
30 comments
Pokemon games are the ones with the largest collection of ROM hacks ranging from minor tweaks to fully fledged brand new games
If I knew you collected Tau I'd have never hired you.
Otherwise, I reckon I mostly agree with your sentiments, except for Space Marine II. The first game is lauded, but it came at a time when PC gaming was in a weird place with a lot of bad ports. The 2000s were a bit of a turning point for PC gaming in my opinion. The late 2000s and very early 2010s saw the platform mostly being led by these same bad ports, outside of Valve and Blizzard, with even former PC stalwarts like BioWare, DICE, etc. all primarily targeting consoles. Space Marine II exists in a very different ecosystem, after indie games became a massive market and after PC saw massive growth thanks to MOBAs, Twitch, ArmA mods defining the modern landscape of gaming, and various other cultural shifts. I also think that a proprietary engine can almost create more of an opening for modding based on history. I get that in practice, mods should be very straightforward with Unreal, but how many insanely popular games on Unreal end up with no modding scene? It took the entirety of Tekken 7's lifespan for the modding community to actually form and figure out solutions. Not even Palworld's success could spur a real scene beyond a few model swaps and tweaks, despite the fact that the devs have done nothing to make it harder. Unreal is almost a death knell for modding scenes unless developers provide explicit support. Games built on Unity and Godot seem to have a ridiculously higher ratio of mods to games. Not to mention Larian's proprietary engine being modded to death, far beyond the official mod tools offered, before they even saw anywhere near the success of BG3.
I'd love to hear other opinions on this, because the topic of how Unreal is hypothetically super moddable and yet rarely gets modded is something I've not actually gotten to discuss with anyone.
This is the opinion that I have as a novice in modifying the mechanics of UE5, but surely some PRO can tell you that for them using some tricks is super easy to make 3D modeling.
Conversation: https://i.ibb.co/HnSPQBG/discord-iostore-troubleshooting.jpg
Mod in question: https://www.nexusmods.com/aloneinthedark/mods/8
There are some nascent tools (e.g. ZenTools, UECasToc) that help, but they still have some bugs and major limitations.
I'm hopeful some more tools for modifying ioStore come around (or the existing tools improve) as more UE5 games come out. ioStore works VERY differently from the old .pak loading format and even now a lot of modders really have a hard time wrapping their head around it.
But when the developers are dedicated to make different packs for STEAM and GAME PASS version as it happens with Palworld this kind of tools are totally useless, it has been impossible for me to make my STEAM mods work with the GAME PASS version with the “Zen loader” for IOSTORE packaging and even if I had the GAME PASS version to try to recreate them it is not possible to extract the .uexp of “Zen loader” that are necessary to be able to modify them.
The truth is that this does not look like it will improve in the future because in each version they add some kind of different system or protection.
For one, this is just ModularCoccon speculating on if they think games will have a modding scene or not. We're not saying at any point that the games need to be modded....
though from what I've seen after reading people's walls of texts here on Nexus, and the Steam community section, I'm quite worried the modding scene wont be as lively as I would hope.
I think it is another great game that will generate many mods by the OpenFF7R Discord Server community, for those who want to start modding the demo that is already available you have the excellent tool Nenkai/FF16Tools
https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/v-0-7-resource-manager-age-of-myth-retold-bar-extractor/260136/5
Does it start with an 'L' and end with 'overslab'
I think the only take i'd disagree with on this article is Space Marine. Even if "only" 42 mods aren't eye-popping if you're coming from a Bethesda community, some of the mods for the first Space Marine title look very solid. Quality over quantity.
I'd say that's really not bad for a game from 2011 on a proprietary engine. You really have to appreciate what some of these smaller modding communities manage to do with what they have.
Also very interested to see how Persona 3: Reload goes. Seems there was some disagreement in the Persona community between FES and Portable - but with Reload, it seems that most of the community has been favorable towards it.
Yes it is strange that DBSZ is put in first place, I understand the Hype that this game generates and I am eager to see what kind of packaging UE5 will have to be able to create mods, but our DBZK community is as small as Space Marine and it does not seem to be the problem, I think it is because this game could generate a great avalanche of future users unlike Space Marine, but if it is true that saying 42 mods - not great is not very well because DBZK has about 350.
It being the first in the list is purely coincidental: There's no ranking here, just me listing the games showcased and making some predictions.
To be clear, I have absolutely ZERO issue with Sparking Zero being recommended on the list. I'm familiar with a lot of the DB modding community and they are no slouches by any means.
I still think comparing the modding scenes from one series to another is inherently like comparing apples to oranges. There are very different dynamics and goals that bring in people (or lack thereof).
It's definitely surprising to hear that Warhammer 40k / Space Marine is as large as the massive Dragonball community! The best sales numbers I could find has Space Marine at 1.2 Million copies (2011) vs DBZ Kakarot at 8 Million copies (2024). I'm absolutely certain those numbers are incongruous though. I'll take your word for it.
This mod immediately caught my eye when looking at Space Marine. I suppose all it takes is one really cool mod (or concept) to pull my interest
mike9k1, everything is going well for me, I am sorry I can no longer be active on social networks.
It's true that you can't compare the numbers of those two games, but right now I think both communities have the same number of active modders, think that the most important DBZK modders now have families and can't invest much time in creating new content.
EDIT: A big greeting to ssjatys who was one of the great promoters of the modding scene in DBZK and to whom I am tremendously grateful for all that he contributed, taught us, tremendous talent, effort and patience.