After nearly 20 years of console exclusivity, Koei Tecmo is finally bringing the Dead or Alive series to the PC with a port of Dead or Alive 5: Last Round next month. But the developer is putting out an early warning that potential modders had better behave if they want the franchise to continue on the platform.

"We have to deal with mod issues from an IP holder perspective," Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi said in an interview with trade publication MCV. "We would like to ask PC users to play our game in good moral and manner. Otherwise, we won’t be able to release a title for PC again."

Hayashi didn't elaborate on exactly what he considered "good and moral" (or bad and immoral) modding, but his words could be a warning against making the game's scantily clad fighters even more scantily clad by messing with in-game models. It's already not hard to find footage of "nude mods" for the existing console versions of the game running through emulators or modified consoles; creating something similar on a PC version would likely be trivial.

While Dead or Alive is already famous (or infamous) for its well-endowed, barely covered fighters, Hayashi defended the revealing nature of the unmodded character models to MCV. "Our characters, male and female alike, are created in a fantasy setting and are using extraordinary abilities to compete with each other in a clearly light-hearted, over-the-top universe," he said. "Their abilities are very balanced and we want to present all of them as dynamic, strong, sexy, and confident."

"What is important to remember is that Dead or Alive is a series developed in Japan, where the interpretation of beauty is very different to that of Europe or the US," he added.

Then again, Hayashi's mention of an "IP holder" perspective could hint at concern over modders putting other famous characters into the Dead or Alive engine. Back in 2004, Marvel sued City of Heroes maker Cryptic Studios for character creation tools that allowed players to easily create in-game facsimiles of famous comic book characters. The case was eventually settled out of court under undisclosed terms.

As it stands, companies like Sony have to be vigilant in deleting copyrighted content that shows up in games like LittleBigPlanet. User-created mods are slightly different from content created with in-game tools, of course, but Koei Tecmo could just be extremely wary of getting dragged into any potential legal fights.

We've reached out to Koei Tecmo's representatives to try to clarify the matter. For now, though, modders should know that they are expected to be on their best behavior if they don't want their toys taken away.