No. They just haven't released all the necessary tools yet.

You are totally off the mark on this one. Many people bougth RTW just becasue of the mods. So, higher modability = higher sales.

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Yes, in general mods are positive to game producers:

a) they strengthen the longevity of a game creating a loyal community and facilitating the marketing of a sequel.

b) they offer a free benchmark to the vanilla version for intern evaluation and future projects.

But I have to disagree to a certain degree with your conclusions.

Reason: The relationsship between mods and sales seems more complex, because revenues are made up by two parameters: Price and number of sales.

Background:

According to my current status of information, I think MTW2 had been the last game of the TW series where I paid the full price - otherwise I would consider myself completely irrational.

Make no mistake, if I would not be aware what difference exists between EB and Vanilla RTW (read: no modability), I buy each sequel in the TW series at a premium price for the next 5 years - simply because there are no serious substitutes in the market even to a mediocre product like MTW2.

But because I'm aware of the tremendous difference between vanilla and EB version, I'm able to delay my buy until it becomes a bargain. I wonder, if this strategy does not represent the reaction of a significant share of original TW buyers.

Regards - PTB