What Console Gamers Should Expect From ‘Fallout 4’ Mods

In just a few months, console gamers will finally get their first true taste of the kind of new gameplay opportunities that Bethesda fans are capable of creating when Fallout 4 mods officially come to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Modding has long been an exclusive perk to PC gaming so it’s understandable if some believe that console platforms, which are relatively late to the scene, might suffer from some kind of watered down experience when it comes to mods.

Fortunately, however, Bethesda wasn’t interested in only delivering partial mod support for the latest installment of their post-apocalyptic adventure. The studio’s ultimate goal is to bring the same user mods that are available to PC fans to the Xbox One and PS4. This desire actually dates back several years as Fallout 4 director Todd Howard has actually revealed that he first wanted to introduce mods to console systems with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which launched more than a decade ago.

Shortly after announcing Fallout 4 during last year’s E3 event, Howard made it clear that Bethesda doesn’t plan to strictly control what mods will be available to console player. In an interview with IGN, the game director stated that fans can expect to see the same kind of mods on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as what are generally allowed for PC users to download via Steam.

“The plan is that it goes through Bethesda.net, but… outside of things that we would normally take down — we take down things on Steam Workshop if it’s got things that are illegal, or things like that — we’ll do the same thing.”

Bethesda will still monitor console mods, but the plan is to only ever remove content that contains stolen property without permission. Gamers also shouldn’t expect to see many mods featuring erotic themes. This might sound like Fallout 4‘s consoles mod will be overly censored, but the same rules will supposedly also apply to all mods offered through the Steam Workshop.

“Either your nudity or porn, that kind of stuff, or you’re taking assets from Halo, though, Microsoft might allow that. We’d have to get approval. But like, generally, if someone is using assets from another game, we have to say ‘No, you can’t do that.'”

One way that Fallout 4 mods will actually be different on consoles, however, involves Bethesda’s current plans for how the content will be installed. On PC, users generally have to download community mods outside of the game and then place the data in the proper game folders. Thankfully, console players won’t have to worry about any of that since the game will fully take care of the mod installation process for them.

While speaking to Microsoft’s Major Nelson during a Fallout 4 launch interview, Bethesda’s vice president of public relations, Pete Hines, revealed that the team wants to take all of the guess work out of using mods. With that in mind, the game will automatically handle the install after each mod is downloaded.

“The idea is you go to play the game and there’s a menu option and you click on it and there’s just a bunch of stuff for you to download. You click on the stuff you want and you start playing the game with these new mods. We want it to be a really streamlined, fun experience.”

In order to make trying out Fallout 4 mods even easier on the Xbox One and PS4, Hines more recently shared on Twitter that Bethesda is trying to give users the option of picking out mods directly from the game menu. This would allow fans to download and install custom mods from within the title itself.

@Elduroto idea is that you could do it all from within game menu. We will let folks know when we have details.

— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) January 18, 2016

In addition to official mod support coming to Fallout 4 later this year, Bethesda also recently expanded their commitment by confirming that the game will receive more add-ons than originally anticipated. As a result, the price of the Fallout 4 Season Pass was increased this month to accommodate the additional content. As the Inquisitr reported last month, Bethesda also held another Game Jam week to give developers the chance to work on their own ideas for the game. As with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, much of the upcoming DLC features for Fallout 4 were inspired by this exercise.

What are your thoughts on Fallout 4 mods coming to consoles?

[Image via Bethesda.Net]