Bethesda blames Sony as PS4's Fallout 4, Skyrim mods put on hold

Fallout 4 mods have now been available on PC and Xbox One for months, while PS4 support -- originally slated for June -- is still nowhere to be seen. Bethesda not-so-subtly hinted Sony was holding it up previously, and now it's confirmed that is the case -- and mods aren't coming until Sony changes its mind.

"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," Bethesda wrote on its website today.

"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."

PS4 mods were available in beta back in June, but they ran into some serious problems, prompting a delay. Weeks later, Bethesda vice president of marketing and PR Pete Hines sent out a series of tweets about the wait, saying the company was working with Sony and that mods were "under evaluation." He also responded to several tweets and hinted that Sony was the one holding things up.

"We continue to try and get an update so we can share something. We still haven't gotten one," he said in July. When someone suggested keeping fans in the dark was a poor idea, he replied, "I don't disagree. We have explained that to 'others' so we can get/share an update. So far it hasn't worked." Asked if those others are people at Sony, he concluded, "I'm not going to get into specifics. If I was able to have an open dialog and explain what's up, I would have long ago."

More recently, he indicated in an interview that Bethesda was still trying to make mods happen.

"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," he explained.

Returning to today's statement, Bethesda offered no timeline for when things might change, saying only, "We will provide an update if and when this situation changes."

It's not an optimistic sentiment, though it seems possible -- now that Bethesda has pointed its finger at Sony -- that public outcry could put additional pressure on Sony to give Bethesda the headroom it desires.

It's not hard to imagine Microsoft trying to capitalize on this, as it already has with the lack of 4K Blu-ray support in the PS4 Pro. It's already begun with at least one tweet, which was sent out this morning by Mike Ybarra, Xbox's partner director of program management: "I like mods. Made Skyrim so amazing (still does) on Windows. Will do the same on Xbox."