Mods and 4K Coming to PlayStation 4 for Skyrim and Fallout 4

[Nuvendil]

GribbleGrunger said:

pokoko said:
Bethesda really should not have come out with that first statement, not if they were still working on a solution. Kind of unprofessional, as it made consumers think there was no hope.

"You'll also be able to create your own mods with packed in assets, but external assests will not be allowed." Typo aside, that's pretty interesting. Makes me wonder if a lot of this wasn't over legal issues and modders ripping assets from other games and IP.

As for the impact, most of the important game-play mods will be unaffected. I'm guessing some visual enhancements, new weapons, and new costumes would be barred on PS4. That's kind of disappointing but at least the really important mods will be available.

Sony clearly wanted to keep it a closed system and Bethesda just wanted to open it up to the internet. I'm glad Sony stood there ground. I think people will still get those mods but they'll come as official QCed patches instead.

Well, Bethesda likely just didn't want to be hands on.  For one, modding has thrived from a hands off approach and has vast, established communities Bethesda doesn't want to damage.  Second, the last time they got kinda hands on was mod selling on Steam which was such a spectacular trainwreck it was canceled mere days after it launched.  So that made them really steer clear of hands on since.  And lastly, more hands on = more liable.  If Bethesda gave lots of official help and hands on moderation, they could get in trouble for what mods contain.  For example, when we over at MERP got the C&D from WB, if Bethesda was all hands on with modding, they could have been dragged in.  

As for external assets, that's an interesting line.  I think this is more about mod theft than ripping from other games which is already a no no unless the game dev has said it is ok (CD Projekt Red gave permission to any modders to use Witcher 2 assets for example).  But mods are harder to protect and the Xbone launch saw a TON of mods using assets without permission, sometimes causing problems for users and lots of confrontation among the community, especially when sometimes mod creators got bombarded with complaints over mods they didn't make but used their assets or were credited to them by thieves.