PS4’s mod support in Fallout 4 is still as barren as the game’s landscape.
It’s been more than three months since Xbox One players got the ability to load and play most player-created Fallout 4 mods, a rarity in the console world. PlayStation 4 owners, however, are still waiting for the same feature, seemingly owing d to continuing technical problems and issues with Sony.
PS4 modding for Fallout 4 was initially promised for some time in June, after the late May release of Xbox One mod support. By mid-June, however, Bethesda admitted problems with memory and performance issues on the console, struggles with the PS4’s proprietary sound file format, and a Sony-imposed mod storage limit of 900 MB (compared to a full 2GB on the Xbox One). Despite all that, a closed beta for PS4 modding was reportedly “close to ready” at the time.
It wasn’t until the end of June that Bethesda officially delayed that beta indefinitely. By early August, Bethesda could only say that “we’re working with Sony on Fallout 4 Mod support for PS4″ and that “the process [for adding PS4 mods] is still under evaluation.”
In a new interview with the UK’s Metro newspaper, Bethesda’s Pete Hines confirmed that the feature has not been abandoned despite the long delay and radio silence from the company. “It’s definitely not that we’ve decided not to do it, we absolutely, positively want to get PS4 mods out as fast as humanely [sic] possible.”
When given the opportunity, Hines refused to point the finger directly at Sony for the continuing delays, simply repeating again that the feature is “undergoing an evaluation process.” But Hines has previously hinted external forces are preventing him from sharing the full story behind the wait. In July, he tweeted that Bethesda was waiting for an update it could share with its fans. Asked in a follow-up why Bethesda was hurting its credibility by “keeping players in the dark,” Hines replied, “I don’t disagree. We have explained that to ‘others’ so we can get/share an update. So far it hasn’t worked.”
Bethesda’s apparent struggles with Sony come as a number of developers have named Sony as the sole barrier to setting up cross-platform gameplay between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. “Right now, we’re literally at the point where all we need is the go-ahead on the Sony side and we can, in less than a business day, turn [cross-platform play] on and have it up and working, no problem,” Psyonix Vice President Jeremy Dunham said in July.