PS4 owners currently playing Bethesda’s Fallout 4 (including myself) have been patiently waiting since its release back in November 2015 for any news of mod support coming to fruition for their console versions of the game.  The official word from Bethesda was that June 2016 will see, for the first time ever, official mods coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1 users playing Fallout 4.

It was exciting news for console users as the range of mods that had been available for PC versions of most Fallout games, that included everything from texture improvements, new settlement build items, body modifications, new hair textures, outfits, weapons – even changing seasons….were finally coming to consoles and would virtually make the experience of Fallout a brand new one that would look as however we determined it to.

June came and passed and it’s now early September and Xbox 1 users are now reveling in mods for the game while it seems PS4 users have been left out in the rain and may never actually see mods at all and according to Bethesda, it’s not on their behalf.

On their official site, Bethesda announced they are halting their fight to get mods out for PS4 users because Sony won’t come to the game.  The statement reads:

“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.

We will provide an update if and when this situation changes.”

As it reads, this news will also affect the hugely anticipated Skyrim Special Edition release that is also being flogged as offering mods to PS4 users.  It appears the breakdown between Bethesda and Sony comes in the form of not enough mod storage space (900mb for PS4 to 2GB for XBox 1), sound file support and texture issues with PC to console modding.  It also seems Bethesda’s approach to mods “where users can do anything they want” isn’t sitting too well with Sony either.

And to kick us PS4 Fallout players while we’re down, The development team on Farming Simulator 17 have confirmed that mods will be playable on the PS4 version of the game from the day of release.  Don’t ask me why this is happening but not for Fallout 4!

I wonder how much an XBox 1 costs these days?