‘Fallout 4’ And ‘Skyrim’ PS4 Mods Officially Blocked By Sony

The saga of mod support on the PlayStation 4 for Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition came to an unhappy conclusion Friday. Bethesda Softworks announced support for mods on the console had been blocked by Sony.

As previously covered, Fallout 4 mod support for the PS4 was supposed to launch in beta form at the end of June. This was delayed with no specific reason given. What was known at the time, though, was Sony’s console had file size limits. The PlayStation 4 would only support mods up to just 900 MB, whereas Xbox One owners can add mods up 2 GB in size.

Sony’s decision to block mods for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition does not appear to be technical in nature based on the Bethesda announcement. It instead appears to be a policy difference that may relate to the aforementioned file size limit or something else.

“After months of discussion with Sony, we regret to say that while we have long been ready to offer mod support on PlayStation 4, 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.”

“Like you, we are disappointed by Sony’s decision given the considerable time and effort we have put into this project, and the amount of time our fans have waited for mod support to arrive. We consider this an important initiative and we hope to find other ways user mods can be available for our PlayStation audience. However, until Sony will allow us to offer proper mod support for PS4, that content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim on PlayStation 4 will not be available.”

This is truly disappointing news for owners of the PlayStation 4 and fans of both Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V. Mods can extend the life of a game, especially a single-player one, well past completing the campaign. This is especially true for Fallout 4 now that the final DLC, Nuka World, has been released. Mod makers have been creating everything from new armor and weapon skins to new creatures to new areas to new quest lines since the game was launched last November.

Official mod support was added by Bethesda Softworks for the PC in April of this year, and this was followed by the Xbox One at the end of May. The addition of the console nearly broke the official Bethesda website with 50 times the traffic of the PC mod launch. That demonstrates just how much console players have been yearning for mod support for their games, and why Sony may be missing out on a huge opportunity by blocking support for the PS4.

Sony has not released a statement concerning the matter yet, but this writer is attempting to contact them concerning their side of the story about the lack of official mod support.

Interestingly, Bethesda Vice President of Public Relations Pete Hines spoke about the status of mod support with the PS4 during Gamescom at the end of August. At the time, he explained the feature was still deep in the evaluation process. He made clear, however, that the holdup was not on their end.

“It’s definitely not that we’ve decided not to do it, we absolutely, positively want to get PS4 mods out as fast as humanly possible,” Hines explained.

Obviously, that didn’t happen, so it will be interesting to see if this story continues to develop or if Sony’s blocking of PS4 mod support is the final word. Naturally, Microsoft has gotten a word in as well.

ICYMI: Xbox One owners have been enjoying @Fallout 4 mods since May. Details https://t.co/6p7DAqjIhf pic.twitter.com/ktCYIhIFkx

— Larry Hryb ?? (@majornelson) September 9, 2016

What do you think of Sony blocking Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition mod support? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Bethesda Softworks]