Sony and Bethesda Fail to Reach Agreement on Game Mods

It would appear that Sony has dealt a damaging blow to its Playstation 4. By refusing to allow mods for either Fallout 4 or Skyrim the gaming giant has effectively alienated a segment of its market. Whether this choice effects console sales has yet to be seen. However, with this happening in the midst of a mid generation …

[CrimzonRazor]

come on Sony this is another poor choice open up cross play, get mods, and beef up the neo/pro power before you release it.

[extermin8or]

Judging from what evs have said on neogaf (remember if you can demonstrate your source to mods they ban you there) it wasn't so much sony's choice. But that Sony wanted a certain degree of vuration- only mods that would actually work would appear, nothing that would get them in shit for hosting copyright infringing material on their servers, nothing that'd crash your ps4 or potentially damage/brick it etc.. Bethesda refused to do this thus.... No mod support.

[Master of Unlocking]

Exactly. Also, the guy who wrote the article is full of sh!t when he says Sony has a history of being more tight with gamers, he doesn't remember the mod support for the PS3 edition of Unreal III when the 360 version didn't have it? Or the custom animated themes on the PS3? Oh the removal of Linux, right, but what happened before that? If a little punk, who may just have been a MS fanboy and sony hater for all we know, hadn't hacked the PS3 using Linux it would still be available on Playstation to this day.

Anyway, when you further read "If you are an Elder Scrolls or Fallout fan I suggest against waiting this one out. Your best option is buying an XBox One. If anything the timing is perfect. The Xbox One has received significant price cuts as of late. You can find the orignal XBox One starting as low as $250. If 4k is more your thing then the XBox One S can be yours for as little as $300. So what will you do? Will you remain happy with your Xbox One purchase? Jump ship from Sony to Microsoft?" it's so obvious it's another one of those biased "journalist" trying to sell xbox consoles, like I said in a previous article.

[Bansai]

Expecting QA on mods is virtually impossible just by a sheer volume of their income, Bethesda would probably need to hire a whole team just for that. It's a stupid decision on Sony's part in my opinion.

So what if my game would crash? It also works like that on PC, you take good with the bad, some mods are crappy and you try and install only those with stellar ratings.

This decision is beyond me and I'm really pissed about it, I platinumed Fallout 4 on PS4 and was looking foward to altering my experience in some future playthrough.

[n4rc]

With a name like that, your opinion on ps3 Linux is kinda funny..

It wasn't some punk or fanboy.. it was geohot, the same guy that jailbroke the iphone and wasn't malicious. (Illegal maybe lol)

But the fact you think anyone that doesn't praise Sony is working for Microsoft is pretty pathetic if you really believe that

[freshslicepizza]

so it is true, people will defend whatever decision they make about anything and not allow the actual consumer to decide. cross play with other consoles, no external hard drive support, no ultra bluray player on the ps4 pro, no mod support, no ea access...

[NecoTehSergal]

b-b-but it's easier to blame Sony for everything! Even though straight from Bethesda's mouth they said, they wanted to make it so people could "upload anything and everything and have the freedom to do so" - but what that means is extra work on Sony's part that they just I guess aren't ready for. Sony is also likely paranoid about gateways that are opened that could leave PS4 vulnerable to exploitation like Linux did on PS3. I don't blame them if they felt that way, PS4 is a very secure console, Xboxs' have been notoriously easy to mod and crack all the time. Remember when a FIFA game on the Xbox enabled hackers to steal credit card information? Loopholes happen with poor security and exploitation of such things.

I'd bet someone would find a way to make it so an upload could have an injection or open up a loophole to get into things that no one should normally have access to.

[CrimzonRazor]

Cant be ms has rules about copyright and damage like your saying yet they still have mod support, there is something more to this and my guess would be sony wanted money (remember when steam wanted to make money off skyrim mods and the poo hit the fan)

[Yetter]

And yet they are working just fine on XB1. If this is the actual reason then Sony f'd up.

[Nu]

#Sonysucks

[Sevir]

I honestly don't care, I don't like Skyrim and I never got into the fallout franchise.. this isn't effecting me.. mid support isn't be all end all.

[NecoTehSergal]

Hardware just don't get quick revisions like that..... it doesn't work like that. The RAM and CPU can't change or else optimization and porting between PS4 Regular and Pro would be crippled and increasingly difficult. The GPU could get a bit of a better boost but, what Sony did is plenty. The pricetag being how it is is more important. If you want more power? Get a PC, that, or get the Xbox Scorpio, cause it'll be stronger, but the price may not be what everyone expects.

[leoms]

OR you could wait for an official statement from Sony before jumping the gun... hmm?

[GamingIVfun]

Ain't going to make any difference, wishful thinking. The guy that wrote the article made up his mind before this even came up. He's Just trying to sell Xbox Ones.

[MajorsNelson]

So you think this is cool from sony?

[Master of Unlocking]

This is not cool from Bethesda to demand Sony accept ALL AND ANY MOD on the PS4...

[geddesmond]

No its not cool by Sony if there reasons ain't legit. I'm still waiting for there response first. Two sides to every story. But it's still not enough to ever support ms over them. In my eyes ms have done much worse over the years

[deathtok]

This is in Bethesda's court to put some level of quality control on mods. I'm surprised they haven't created an automated certification that stress tests the game engine.

Sony likely doesn't want the console crashing. Many will assume it's the PS4 not the mod which will drive support tickets.

[Utalkin2me]

@MajorNelson

Do you think releasing a totally unplayable experience in Skyrim at launch on the PS3 is cool by Bethesda?

[Silly gameAr]

Your name is MajorsNelsons. Nothing Sony does would be cool with you. This blog is obviously trying to sell xbox consoles, like most of these blogs on N4G lately, and they blow everything out of proportion to do it.

[ShaunCameron]

Nah. He's more trying to promote PC gaming. He just said mods.

[GamingIVfun]

Did you read the article

From article:
If you are an Elder Scrolls or Fallout fan I suggest against waiting this one out. Your best option is buying an XBox One. If anything the timing is perfect. The Xbox One has received significant price cuts as of late. You can find the orignal XBox One starting as low as $250. If 4k is more your thing then the XBox One S can be yours for as little as $300.

I suggest going back and reading the whole thing.

It's an fanboy selling Xbox One's

It's pretty much common knowledge Todd Howard favors MIcrosoft even though fallout 4 sold better on PS4.
We haven't heard from Sony or know the whole story. From what I have read, Sony wanted to verify mods themselves, Instead of leaving it up to Bethesda. Makes sense you want to make sure there is no malicious code, that it won't crash the system, and that they don't infringe on someone else's intellectual property. Can't blame Sony for being extra protective, Mods are risky and they are being created on PC's. Can't blame Sony, Bethesdas games are buggy as hell at release and that's with a game engine that's not that impressive.

[Tobsesan]

whoa ppl damage control everything

[Utalkin2me]

Some people like to try to downplay everything too..../\....lol.....smh

[Master of Unlocking]

Funny, we came to the same conclusion when I hadn't read your post. Great minds think alike. ;-)

[ShaunCameron]

Sony will be alright. The segment of the market being alienated is negligible.

[Cuzzo63]

Da mods for Fallout won't break my spirit. I really dont even care about mods... I jus dont see how in the article its a reason to wanna jump ship...

[thepluggy]

dude there is so many good mods on the xbox version of fallout 4, hearing this i will def be buying Skyrim for the Xboxone now and not my PS4

[Goldby]

Dude theres sooo manybetter mods for fallout 4 on oc you cant even call the xbox versions mods. No script externder NO THANK YOU

[Cuzzo63]

Maybe but... I guess I wasn't interested. I'm sure it will get ironed out tho... Not too worried if I get em or not tbh... But I'm jus speaking from my personal opinion.

[WellyUK]

you should as mods make bethesda games 10 times better.

[BattleAxe]

- Sony doesn't allow mods: Sony fan says "that's ok, mods suck anyway"
- No 4K Blu-ray player for PS4 Pro: Sony fan says "that's ok, 4K Blu-rays suck anyway"
- Only 1TB hard drive in PS4 Pro: Sony fan "that's ok, hard drives with more memory suck anyway"
- No Backwards Compatibility for PS4: Sony fan "that's ok, old games suck anyway"
- PS4 Pro doesn't really do Native 4K: Sony fan: "that's ok, I like upscaled games better anyway"

[Tobsesan]

EA Access
Name Change
External Harddrive
Delaying every year all fall games into the next year, but marketing the first 8 months like its comes out
Paying for online is okay this gen somehow
Making you ay for a new console after 3 years
having the worse online
....

[Doabarrelroll]

EA access isn't some god tier thing shut up about it,
Name change I'll give you that
Get over external hard drive not that big a a deal
Remember when Xbox gamers said scalebound, sea of thieves, crackdown 3, halo wars 2, fable legends would all be amazing...... In 2016
And Xbox gamers bragged only about having better multiplates, and say sales don't matter after a full gen of bragging
What the hell is the XBs then not a full console you moron
PSN has improved okay, stop acting like its PS3 already

[Tobsesan]

EA Access is a great deal if you like the games on it. I want to have the choice myself to get it or not.
External is a huge deal, since you can just plug and play with up to 16 TB!!!!
Yep, they delayed the games also. But didn't market the whole year like they come out and 1 month before it should release delay it to next year and say WHOOPS!
Its a Slim Version, not the next more powerfull version.
PSN has improved, was impossible not to get better from that mess. Yet its still lagging in every way. Not even close to the competition and yet no dedicated servers.

[Doabarrelroll]

Well EA Acess is old news so clearly we're not losing sleep
Funny I remember fable legends in MS line up 2015 yet it disappeared randomly, and halo wars 2 was for holiday 2016 but got delayed...WHOOPS
XBS is a new console no matter how you slice Itami of you want HDR on Xbox you gotta buy, Sony gave it to us for free
I believe your talking about the PSN vs XBL article where XBL was only better by a small amount not some HUGE margin which is expected cause XBL has been expected cause it's existed since the beginning. So really not that big of a deal

[Yui_Suzumiya]

LOOOL

[DeadlyOreo]

@battleaxe

Xbox One doesn't run used games: Xbox fan says that's okay.

Xbox One promises to revolutionise with the use of Kinect but no one one buys Kinect: Xbox fan used to say Kinect 2.0 was incredible, now forgets to mention it.

Xbox One runs every multiplat at a lower resolution than its competition: Xbox fan says that's okay, you can't tell the difference.

Xbox One promises power of the Cloud but fails to deliver: Xbox One fan conveniently forgets about the Cloud.

Xbox One introduces Backwards Compatibility, only notable games available are Black Ops 1 and Red Dead: Xbox fans think backwards compatability is the greatest creation ever and playing old games is the way to win the console wars.

Xbox One promises DX12 power: Xbox fan praised it to high heavens but has now unfortunately forgotten about it.

Xbox One becomes a significantly weaker console choice thanks to PS4 Pro: Xbox fans says Pro doesn't have native 4k and you can't watch UHD movies on your gaming machines. Scorpio will destroy it.

Xbox One offers mods for two games, whilst the completion doesn't: Xbox fan says mods are the most important thing ever, Playstation 4 Pro preorder cancelled. The deception from Sony is just too much.

[Tobsesan]

Its funny, because most stuff you mention is false while we give you true facts =(

Used games was misinformation made up by the media
Kinect 2.0 is still incredible and way better as the ps cam
Cloud compute is already here, thats why Titanfall 2 is such a shtshow now because ps4 can't handle it
Depends on the used engine and effort if one is a higher res, could also say xb1 runs games with higher frames due to better CPU power
Over 230 games are BC and if you think those 2 are the only good, take a look: http://www.gamespot.com/art...
Comparing the old model to a next gen model is fair all of a sudden?
Having mods just shows MS is listening to defs and gives them the freedom they need, this is just the beginning and more will follow.

btw nice try

[Utalkin2me]

@Tobsesan

Lol, he provided one link and to a list of backwards compatible games at that. But hey he provides true facts in everything he says....SMH.

[GamingIVfun]

@Toseson

Everything DeadlyOreo mentioned is absolutely true.

The hard drive thing: True, would some one choose a Xbox One over PS4 just on that ? You can change the hard drive pretty easily on a PS4.

Microsoft announced a bunch of games two years ago that have not come out or have been canceled or the release has been pushed, dumb argument, delays happen all the time with games, games get canceled Xbox One has had it's fair share. The one's that were released didn't sell any consoles because they over hyped and under delivered.

PSN wasn't nearly as bad as you claim, Xbox Live wasn't as perfect on 360 as fanboys claim either.

If Microsoft had went through with their original plan, your games would have no resale value after you installed the game and it was registered to your account. If it was misinformation Microsoft wouldn't have changed it.

Cloud computing isn't a new thing exclusive to Microsoft, like they were trying to make people believe. cloud computing has been used in multi player games for a long time, I believe the tech that Microsoft used for cloud computing came from a middleware company anyway, plus they don't talk about it anymore and have moved on to giving hard computer specs for Xbox Scorpio, I say specs because we haven't seen a machine yet or heard of any developer having developement kits.

Who cares about Kinect, if I had a room mate that talked loudly to the TV all the time, he or she would have to go. The real purpose for the Kinect has mostly been abandoned Like the Xbox was.

The couple games that had one or two frames more on Xbox One than PS4 changed with a couple patches like The Witcher 3, where the PS4 version has a better frame rate now.

BC hasn't made any difference where MIcrosoft wanted it to, sales. Most people don't care and buy new consoles to play new games.

The mod thing is a Joke, Bethesda's been playing cat and mouse with this for months. It's Pretty clear that Todd Howard favors PC and Microsoft. You or I do not Know the whole story. It's Not like Sony is against mods they have had mods in other games, I believe Unreal Tournament had mods on Playstation.

[FlyShootRaceSims]

You're funny!

[Gorilla_Killa_X]

-Xbox fan on indies: "PS4 only has indies, indies suck!" Yet top 3 rated games on Xbox one are....get this...indies.
-Xbox fan on Sony raising price of PS+,: "It's a money grab, they are greedy." Yet MS did the same.
-Xbox on Kinect: "They are making it mandatory so that devs make more games for it." MS change their minds and say it's not mandatory. Plus where are the games for Kinect.
-Xbox fan on optical drives: "Xbox 360 doesn't need Blu-Ray, not everyone has an HDTV" or I can get a Blu-ray player to go with my Xbox." Now Sony is dumb for not having a UHD Blu-Ray drive.
-Xbox fan on free games with PS+: "So what you get free games they are all old."
Now that live has free games, "Sweet, (whatever old Xbox One game) is free this month. Xbox rules!"
-XBOX fan on BC: when PS3 had BC, " who wants to play old games, I got a Xbox 360 to play new games." BC is the 2nd coming of Christ, now that Xbox can do it.

[Utalkin2me]

@BattleAxe

Please provide legit information from where people have been saying these things. Ohhhh wait you cant, cause actual facts slip past alot of people on this site.

Again another person trying to downplay as he has been doing in every PS4 pro article. Such as PS4 pro doesnt do native 4k. When it has been stated as a fact they already have games running in native 4k.

Or his common one of Project Scorpio is better then the PS4 pro. I would should hope so. A brand new machine that come outs a year later VS a upgraded PS4. So im downplaying on the Pro even though the Scorpio is still a ways off. But if Sony announces the PS5 in fall of 2017 for 2018, somehow that wont matter anymore.

[Germany7]

Xbox doesn't have exclusives anymore: Xbox fan: "that‘s okay, i never liked exclusives anyway".

[mkis007]

Sad as it is, mods are always better on PC and thats where I will get these games for free anyway.

[Lonnie18]

I really don't see it as a damaging blow at all, why most people only use mods on the pc anyway. I see it as Sony just protecting the consumer from any outside hacks or other unnecessary security risks...which is actually good!

1. They really didn't need to remaster Skyrim and the sales will confirm this!
2. The gaming industry moves pretty fast and Fallout 4 is old news and it's time for a new round of games so bring on the holiday flood.
3. Time for a new game engine Bethesda!

[Number_9]

You think Skyrim won't sell? I'm willing to bet that it will be the highest selling remaster of this generation, beating even The Last of Us on PS4 alone.

[Goldby]

Theres going to be less playstation owners buying thats for sure. After the horrible ps3 vetsion and now conflicts between bethesda and sony i wouldnt be surprised if some hold off for a sale.

The nail on the coffin for playstation owners as well will be if xbox one and ps4 versions are the same price yet playstation owners have access to less

[Lonnie18]

Doubt it will beat The Last of Us let alone GTA5! They could have concentrated their efforts on making a Skyrim 2 if anything but no they wanna quick cash grab. Now if this were Ubisoft part 2 would have already been out!

[babis1974]

SONY must thing the players, we want the mods..

[Nu]

the ponies must be proud

[Dan_scruggs]

It will be fun to see all the people on this site who constantly gloat about the Xbox One being under powered finally have to shut up about it.

[GamingIVfun]

It will be short lived.

[BenRC01]

keep mods on the pc. 90% of them never work properly and the rest are fun diversions for a few minutes. 1 in a million becomes counterstrike but I'd rather keep crappy code off my ps4.

[gamertk421]

Owie

[NeoGamer232]

It is funny how last gen Sony was a leader in this with Unreal Tournament III mods.

But now they seem to think they are in command and don't need mods.

They made a ton of press last gen how they were adopting Unreal Tournament III with mods. Now they are downplaying them.

[Majister-Ludi]

The damage control is real.

[JusticeOfThePeace]

I'm new to n4g so hi all, hear is my two sense on this topic, if I remember correctly Bethesda were struggling to get mods running properly on the ps4 and I'm sure Sony didn't think it was up to an acceptable standard so they tryed to help Bethesda but to no avail therefor Sony said no deal witch I'm personally ok with, don't get me wrong I would love mods on fallout 4 and Skyrim but not if they don't run well, and if they cause freezing,tearing,slowdown or even console bricking in extreme cases. I hope perhaps in the not to distance future this can be resolved.

[joeorc]

@JusticeOfThePeace

Exactly, There was infact a list of problems still even though they had mods up and running on the PS4..So Bethesda's the one who made the choice to not continue to work with Sony to resolve the issues..Note the response..was We wanted mods to run the way "we intented them to run on your PS4..Sony is not saying no to mods..just no to how Bethesda's Mods would run on the PS4..as they are now and have been coded to run on the PS4.

So instead of working to resolve them so they could infact run correctly on the PS4 ..Bethesda cancelled them instead of you know actually furnishing them to as to run on the PS4 platform..because you know the PS4 is not a freaking Microsoft platform... Every time Bethesda's released a game it's been first priority towards a Windows OS based platform..understanding of such because hello that's pretty much their main platform the company codes for..they even openly admit that..their actions show that to be true..as well as their game engine being more centered towards the Xbox and Windows Platforms..

But the only one who can cancel the game or updates to said game are the owners is Fallout a Sony owned IP or Bethesda's? I mean with the response that Bethesda gave it sure sounds like they are trying to tell the consumer Sony is the one who cancelled it for them..for an iP Sony does not own...

I mean Sony could refuse a game shure , but both of the games are and have been accepted on the PS4..Bethesda stated they would bring those games Mods on the PS4 after they get the mods on PC and Xbox..and now they stated because Sony is not going to accept those mods as is..that some how someway Sony is the one that cancelled it? See there being is this web site and you ..know Bethesda owns that web site belonging to you.Bethesda.

you stated " We " decided to cancel them..Sony is not the one that said they were on the way..over and over again. No you were the one that did say it...delay after delay..list of the things needed in order to be fixed to allow them to run..but it's Clear Sony is at fault? Sure thing..like every game you have ever released has never been a freaking bugzilla fest and crashes the D@mn system..and I'm a fan of Bethesda's games...I have purchased every Fallout why because I like the games.

Just not some trumpet up excuse for not finishing the mods...they know Sony is not going to throw them under the bus , so they know they can get by with this little PR stunt , it.and still charge more for the same game..without having to finish with the promise they gave..it's a win win for Bethesda a loose loose for PlayStation only gamers..but that's always been the case with Bethesda any way on PlayStation..always getting later releases. And always porting from a Windows OS based systems to than if they feel like it PlayStation..
PlayStation gamers are nothing more to them than gamers they can sell their games too after they already made money off of other gamers who they are really making their games for in thev1st place, sorta like many Japanese publishers see the Xbox platform in the market..

Developers and publishers all have a preferred platform to work on.. So it's really not a big deal when it happens you should expect it.

[BillytheBarbarian]

Bethesda games are basically Xbox/PC exclusives anyway. The Playstation versions always feel like an after thought and I gather that is why so many Playstation only owners don't like bethesda titles as much as Xbox and PC players.

[GamingIVfun]

Fallout 4 sold Better on PS4, even in the states.

The information on redit and neogaf is that Sony wanted to verify all mods instead of Bethesda, for obvious reasons.