If You Want Mods, You Should Get 'Skyrim' Special Edition on Xbox One Instead of PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 4 Pro

Bethesda Game Studios is a company I've held dear to my heart for well over twenty years. My first experience with them, much like many of you, began with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. For its time, the title was ambitions, and with time the franchise began to flourish as it does even now. With titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, and DOOM under their belts; Bethesda has become a insatiable driving force in the gaming community - even more-so with the PC community.

Known for their carefully crafted stories, ongoing mod support, and even their push to place mods on consoles - Bethesda hasn't shown signs of slowing down on bit. However, that push has hit a bit of a snag today for PlayStation 4 consumers. What is the snag, you might ask, and it's quite simple: Sony isn't going to allow mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Fallout 4 at this time. While Bethesda Game Studios has made it seem as if this is permanent, we can assume it's because of the instability we've seen with some mods on Xbox One that have been crashing the game on consoles, which may be what Sony is trying to avoid at this time.

What Did Bethesda Say Exactly About PS4 Mods?

The statement came quite clear just a few hours ago when Bethesda Game Studios posted their official statement, which was a direct aim at Sony Interactive Entertainment, one that puts them in full blame hot on the heels of the PlayStation 4 Pro and PS4 Slim announcements. You can read the full statement at Bethesda.net.

"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 states on their officialBethesdaBlog.

While this seems as ugly as it sounds, there seems that there could still be some hope. Xbox One users have been circumventing issues that have resulted in minor issues from the mods including game lock-ups, and even some rather hilarious bugs that include players seeing things randomly acting rather abnormal. PC on the other hand, has been having at these shenanigans for - well, forever now. We're just now seeing this trend make its way to consoles in recent years.

You May Want to Just Play on Xbox One

Much like all of you, I stand in the same spot, a bit of disappointment over the previous Skyrim issues on PlayStation 3, but now I've become a bit more resounding about previous disappointment. While Sony has been making the right moves to ensure success this generation, they aren't doing everything it takes as Microsoft has continued to outsell them for the past few months. The issue that arose today may push you more towards Xbox One as it may fit your needs better.

This means all those users, which you can be one of, have been enjoying Fallout 4 mods since late July and early August. Unlike PlayStation 4 users, they've been running around in power armor themed around Buzz Lightyear, dressing up in their favorite athlete's gear, changing how creatures look or act, and even getting away with some hysterical shenanigans involving things randomly blowing up for no reason. Hopefully not the John Cena mod that made the Fatman introduce John Cena with round fired that appeared as a fluffy teddy bear.

While DLC has offered quite a bit to do, there's nothing like seeing endless possibilities to ones game, and let alone idea that you can do anything you want just at the touch of a menu option titled "Mods". Sony, you may want to think about this. As for those of you who are wanting mods on console that have both PS4 and Xbox One - it may be time to trade in your PlayStation 4 copy for an Xbox One copy in order to enjoy the mods you may never see. This is because Microsoft has openly adopted a pc-like experience on their console and plan on continuing to do so when Scorpio launches next year (or so we can hope).

With HDR support on both consoles, the PlayStation 4 Pro is seemingly less likely since the Xbox One will be supporting 4K movies and even true 4K HD gaming with more powerful hardware. Downside is that it won't be out this year.

The Situation Truly isn't as Bad as it Sounds

While it seems that Bethesda Game Studios has painted this situation as black and white, it's not really that bad, nor is it truly one that'll ruin your gaming experience. Sure if you want to have mods where you can suit up in your Buzz Lightyear themed Power Armor or find yourself riding across a skeletal horse on fire this fall, that won't be happening at this time. This delay won't hurt your experience if you prefer just to play the base game with all DLC intact.

While Sony's silence may seem as if they are taking the high road, we know that there's business discussions going around at all times, and that's something Bethesda Game Studios has done for a long time. If it helps, games like Warframe are living proof that community made projects have made it into games via content updates, huge expansions, and even micro-patches so that players may get their hands on the in-high-demand items. For now we just need to sit back, relax, and see where these two business titans go from here.