diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/Map/MapCache.cs b/OpenRA.Game/Map/MapCache.cs
index eb95faaa52..0683936627 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/Map/MapCache.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/Map/MapCache.cs
@@ -72,13 +72,10 @@ namespace OpenRA
 				try
 				{
 					// HACK: If the path is inside the the support directory then we may need to create it
-					if (Platform.IsPathRelativeToSupportDirectory(name))
-					{
-						// Assume that the path is a directory if there is not an existing file with the same name
-						var resolved = Platform.ResolvePath(name);
-						if (!File.Exists(resolved))
-							Directory.CreateDirectory(resolved);
-					}
+					// Assume that the path is a directory if there is not an existing file with the same name
+					var resolved = Platform.ResolvePath(name);
+					if (resolved.StartsWith(Platform.SupportDir) && !File.Exists(resolved))
+						Directory.CreateDirectory(resolved);
 
 					package = modData.ModFiles.OpenPackage(name);
 				}
@@ -144,12 +141,9 @@ namespace OpenRA
 					name = name.Substring(1);
 
 				// Don't try to open the map directory in the support directory if it doesn't exist
-				if (Platform.IsPathRelativeToSupportDirectory(name))
-				{
-					var resolved = Platform.ResolvePath(name);
-					if (!Directory.Exists(resolved) || !File.Exists(resolved))
-						continue;
-				}
+				var resolved = Platform.ResolvePath(name);
+				if (resolved.StartsWith(Platform.SupportDir) && (!Directory.Exists(resolved) || !File.Exists(resolved)))
+					continue;
 
 				using (var package = (IReadWritePackage)modData.ModFiles.OpenPackage(name))
 				{
diff --git a/OpenRA.Game/Platform.cs b/OpenRA.Game/Platform.cs
index b8533bd3ac..319be36028 100644
--- a/OpenRA.Game/Platform.cs
+++ b/OpenRA.Game/Platform.cs
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ namespace OpenRA
 
 	public static class Platform
 	{
-		public const string SupportDirPrefix = "^";
 		public static PlatformType CurrentPlatform { get { return currentPlatform.Value; } }
 		public static readonly Guid SessionGUID = Guid.NewGuid();
 
@@ -190,7 +189,7 @@ namespace OpenRA
 			path = path.TrimEnd(' ', '\t');
 
 			// Paths starting with ^ are relative to the support dir
-			if (IsPathRelativeToSupportDirectory(path))
+			if (path.StartsWith("^", StringComparison.Ordinal))
 				path = SupportDir + path.Substring(1);
 
 			// Paths starting with . are relative to the game dir
@@ -213,7 +212,7 @@ namespace OpenRA
 			// with inconsistent drive letter case
 			var compare = CurrentPlatform == PlatformType.Windows ? StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase : StringComparison.Ordinal;
 			if (path.StartsWith(SupportDir, compare))
-				path = SupportDirPrefix + path.Substring(SupportDir.Length);
+				path = "^" + path.Substring(SupportDir.Length);
 
 			if (path.StartsWith(GameDir, compare))
 				path = "./" + path.Substring(GameDir.Length);
@@ -223,10 +222,5 @@ namespace OpenRA
 
 			return path;
 		}
-
-		public static bool IsPathRelativeToSupportDirectory(string path)
-		{
-			return path.StartsWith(SupportDirPrefix, StringComparison.Ordinal);
-		}
 	}
 }