Paradox Interactive brings mod support to its Xbox One games

Paradox Interactive, publishers of the Crusader Kings and Hearts of Iron franchises, and the upcoming Stellaris: Console Edition, will bring modding support to the Xbox One versions of its games.

Paradox Mods, as the platform is called, will begin as a free update to Surviving Mars, the extraterrestrial city-builder that launched in March 2018. Players will have more than 30 mods tested and ready for Surviving Mars’ Xbox One version, with support for additional Paradox titles is coming later this year. The feature will be found under the “Mod Manager” tab at the bottom of the Surviving Mars title screen.

Mods for Paradox games on PC may also be used for their Xbox One versions. “As we have diversified the way we distribute our games, we want to make sure all our players can take part in the creation process,” Anders Törlind, the Paradox Mods head, said in a statement. “For Surviving Mars, we have worked with mod creators to support Paradox Mods with some of the best mods available, all in one place and downloadable in-game or simply using a web browser.”

The Paradox Mods update to Surviving Mars also adds keyboard-and-mouse support to the game on Xbox One. The console received that as a control option with a November operating system update.

Update: We goofed in drawing an earlier comparison to Bethesda Softworks’ Creation Kit, which supports mods, cross-platform, for its games. To better explain what Paradox Mods does for Xbox One games, here’s a statement from a Paradox Interactive representative:

“With Paradox Mods, there is actually no pre-approval process for Paradox Mods to get published on Xbox One. Once a Mod is uploaded to Paradox Mods, it is published to Xbox One and the supported PC platforms — making it the first direct pipeline mod creators have to get published on consoles. As long as a mod follows Paradox’s Mod Guidelines, it will not be taken down and the community can flag mods that violate the policy for review.”