A month ago we reported about Bethesda’s announcement that they would not be bringing mod support for Fallout 4 and the upcoming remastered version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to the PS4. However, much to the relief of many PlayStation owners, according to Polygon today Bethesda and Sony have come to a compromise, and Bethesda will in fact be brining mod support to the PS4.
Bethesda had previously stated that Sony hadn’t approved their user mods – many believing that Sony was to blame for the failed attempt at having mod support. They had originally announced that they’d be releasing mods for the PS4 during their E3 conference this past June, and Bethesda had already released mod support for the Xbox One since May. However, a few weeks after their E3 announcement, problems arose with Sony and they kept delaying it until they cancelled their plans altogether. In response to not coming through with their promise, Bethesda placed the blame for the cancellation on Sony, stating that “Sony has informed us they will not approve user mods the way they should work: where users can do anything they want for either Fallout 4 or Skyrim Special Edition.” But now, four weeks later, something clearly changed between both parties, and now it looks like they’ve reached an agreement and will bring mod support to the PS4 – in time for the Skyrim Special Edition which comes out October 28th.
Players will be able to modify existing content and create their own using Bethesda’s Creation Kit. For those planning on buying the upcoming PlayStation 4 Pro, the Skyrim Special Edition will have “native 4K” rendering available. However, Bethesda will have to update Fallout 4 to support mods and PS4 Pro hardware after they’re finished working on Skyrim Special Edition. The company adds:
We expect Fallout 4 to take advantage of the PS4 Pro in 4K along with enhanced lighting and graphics features.
There is one major limitation that Bethesda wants gamers to be aware of: As with most mods, you will be able to use any assets that come with the game, but you won’t be able to upload any external assets with you PlayStation 4 mods. This essentially means that these mods won’t function the same as they do on PCs. Since gamers on the PS4 won’t be able to upload custom assets, they will be stuck with whatever exists within the game already. This may have been part of Bethesda’s compromise with Sony to bring mod support to the PS4 and move past their stalemate.
The PS4 will launch on November 10th and the Skyrim Special edition will launch a few days before that, on October 28th.