Last month, Bethesda seemed to give up on the prospect of bringing mod support to the PS4 versions of Fallout 4 and Skyrim, saying that Sony just wasn’t having it. Now, though, both companies have made some compromises.
Today Bethesda announced that mod support is coming to Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition on PS4. Skyrim gets it first, when it launches on October 28. Fallout 4 doesn’t have a date yet. Before you get too excited, though, you might want to read the fine print:
“We and Sony have worked hard to make this possible. Mods on PlayStation 4 will allow you to modify and create your own content by using our Creation Kit available here. You will not be able to upload external assets with your PlayStation 4 mods, but you will be able to use any assets that come with the game, as most mods do. By creating a Bethesda.net account, you’ll be able to browse and try mods right from within the game.”
Emphasis mine, not theirs. Basically, this means that you can only work with assets (textures, objects, sounds, etc) that already populate Fallout 4’s irradiated wastes and Skyrim’s rad dragon pad. No custom-made stuff.
So while you can still make some pretty outlandish locations and scenarios by remixing what’s there, don’t expect to see, say, Pacifc Rim power armour, a horrifying race of My Little Pony characters, or Thomas The Death Engine available on PS4.
Many less over-the-top preexisting mods on PC and Xbox One still use some custom assets, so they will at least have to be modified before they can make the jump. If nothing else, though, fixes and rebalances like the Fallout 4 Unofficial Patch should be alright.
It’s a bummer, but I suppose some mods are better than no mods. Then again, is Fallout without Macho Man Randy Deathclaw really Fallout at all?
Comments
10 responses to “Skyrim And Fallout Are Getting Mods On PS4 After All, But They Will Be Limited”
Sony probably doesn’t allow user-created content within their strict cert system.
I’m glad we’ll get some quality of life stuff, but honestly, too little too late. I’ve already done everything in Fallout and its DLCs.
I can live with this (just). Hopefully the awesome creative modding community will get behind this and update their mods.
My alternative was to provide the “top 20” most downloaded mods as part of the PS4 release which you could then opt in to use in-game / or not. Of course, any top 20 would have ended up causing the usual “why didn’t they include my favourite XYZ mod” arguements etc. Sigh.
Better than nothing I guess, but it’s still pretty shit. Sony are on record as saying they see the PC as their main competition this gen rather than Xbox, but moves like this are definitely a step in the wrong direction in that regard.
I had been wanting to play F4’s DLC with the MODs as vanilla F4 was a touch disappointing.
Skyrim is less of a problem as I’ll just purchase it on my XBone and have access to ‘all’ the MOD’s – this may be the better choice as I owned it and the DLC on 360 and read somewhere at some-stage that it’s free for previous owners? Can anyone confirm? (I would but I’m at work and will already be in trouble for this comment!)
Its only free for PC users if you have all the DLC on steam. No free upgrade for consoles.
and my disappointment returns 🙁
But its skyrim, I’ve bought the game 3 times and this will be my 4th! Im more excited for this than any new release and I’m dying for Bf1 and Souls dlc but that shows Skyrim is worth it
I agree very much so, although Souls DLC & BF1 (with maybe a pinch of Gears) releasing my mind will be whispering ‘Skyyyyyrim, just another hour…. buddy.’
The native 4k ps pro upgrade is news to me, really stoked on that.
Can anyone give me examples of what mods I can expect? Will I be able to access UI mods, spell mods etc?
For me this news is excellent, I don’t like immersion breaking mods in my game although thomas the tank engine would have been awesome.
Bethesda could have given up with Sony but they clearly want the fans to be happy despite the difficulties Sony has made for them.
I think you’d need new art for UI, what you’ll be able to make with only the creation kit would be things like quest mods