The biggest edge PC gaming has had over consoles was the ability to mod games. Bethesda wanted to change that. Sony didn’t.
The people behind your favorite games, such as Skyrim and Fallout, have just revealed that Sony will not allow players to Mod their games on Sony Playstation 4.
The situation is especially embarrassing for Bethesda, the studio behind games like Skyrim and Fallout, who had announced, earlier this year, that it would bring mods for games like Fallout 4 and, the soon-to-be-released Skyrim remaster on Sony Playstation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.
At that time the move to bring mods to console games was an unprecedented one and RPG fans all around the world rejoiced at the news.
About half of that enjoyment should have turned into sorrow now, as it looks like the console mods will be Xbox exclusive only.
Bethesda posted the news a couple of days ago on its official website and said that Sony would not allow the studio to allow players to mod their games.
The statement said that the mods won’t work “the way they should work”. Sony, as of now, has not commented on the news but of course, we should expect some kind of response very soon.
Moreover, it’s not like Sony would not want to take the risk of introducing mods to console games. Xbox One already has numerous Fallout 4 mods which are readily available. Not only that but other reports have also suggested that Xbox will also make sure that its console fully supports mods for the upcoming Skyrim remaster as well.
Skyrim remaster is expected to launch sometime in October of this year.
The full statement from Bethesda (which can also be found on the studio’s official website) said that after months of discussion with Sony, they regretted to say that while they were ready, for a long time, in fact, to offer mod support on Sony Playstation 4, but Sony had informed them that they would not approve user mods the way they should work.
In other words, mods where users could do anything they wanted for either Fallout 4 of Skyrim Special Edition.
Moreover, the statement read that Bethesda, as a studio, was disappointed by Sony’s decisions given the considerable time and effort the studio had put into the mod project and the amount of time the fans of the studio’s games waited for mod support to arrive.
Bethesda said that they considered mod support an important initiative and hoped that they could find other ways user mods could be made available for their Playstation audience.
Bethesda further added that until Sony would allow them to offer proper mod support for Sony Playstation 4, the exclusive mod content for games such as Fallout 4 and Skyrim would not be available on Sony Playstation 4.
Reading this might make you think that Sony is nothing but a bunch of evil executives trying to ruin the gaming industry in any way they can, but that would not be true.
Sony recently announced that the company won’t charge customers for Playstation 4 patches.
Who doesn’t love mods on a console? Well, Sony doesn’t.
In other words, Sony’s statement means that users won’t be asked to pay extra for updates to their Sony Playstation 4 Pro.
Though there are some uncertainties regarding statements made by some Sony executives.
A couple of days ago an executive at the company said that the company would charge consumers for patches.
The statement was actually an email which was sent to Kotaku by a Sony representative.
Though later Sony clarified the company’s position on the issue, originally the company wasn’t so clear on whether the new updates would be free or not.
There is no doubt that Sony Playstation 4 Pro will mark a new era in console gaming but Sony has made a bit of a habit to complicate matters.
Earlier this week the company announced that the new PlayStation 4 Pro would support 4K and HDR capabilities.
Not only that but Sony also said that all current Sony Playstation 4 console models would get the firmware update which would add HDR functionality.
It was also revealed that older games would get patches which would provide more performance improvements.
Masayasu, a Sony Interactive Entertainment executive, had a conversation with Japanese game website Game Impress watch.
When asked if the patches for 4K HDR for existing titles would cost money or not, he said that the situation would be different for each title. He further added that he believed that it would depend on the thinking of each licensee.
In other words, it would depend on the third-party publishers.
He also said that the same would apply to titles which would be released by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Judging by the answers it seemed like a real possibility that Sony Playstation 4 might have gotten two types of titles. One for which there was a fee for the patch and the other where there was no fee for the update patch.
And initially, the Sony executive did indicate that it was indeed the case.
Of course, as mentioned before, Sony later clarified the company’s position and said that Sony won’t charge for the updates for any title.
On the question of whether Sony Interactive Entertainment would completely support Sony Playstation 4 Pro in terms of titles, Masayasu Ito said that the first party titles that Sony was going to put out would certainly support both 4K and HDR.
Later though, the company,again, amended its stance and said that all games would support 4K but not all games would support both 4K and HDR.
In short, Sony was able to turn a simple question answer session into a full blown controversy.
But at least the company had the wherewithal to clarify any misunderstanding before the situation got out of hand.
And talking about situations getting out of hand, it seems like Microsoft has made a big mistake in announcing the company’s “most powerful console ever made” , Project Scorpio.
DFC Intelligence’s David Cole recently said that Playstation 4 Pro offered a more complete package which was compelling enough for console gamers.
He also said that the announcement of Project Scorpio could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Xbox One because Microsoft had told consumers to wait until 2017 for a much better console gaming system.
He further added that Sony would have the powerful system with VR right now and the company would make all efforts to execute a plan which would bring results and leave consumers no reason to wait for the “best console ever.”
Sony, even with the ban, may have the upper hand because of its new console’s all-roundedness.
And if we walk about an increasingly crowded marketplace for games, Steve Escalante, who is the general manager of indie publisher Versus Evil, said that people have had this conversion for quite a while and with every new window there is talk about the market not having enough good titles. He advises consumers to just pick one instead.
It is interesting to note that when Versus Evil published its well-received indie title Banner Saga in 2014, the game had to share the launch month with another 73 games.
However, when Versus Evil published its second installment of The Banner Saga, Banner Saga 2, the game had to go against almost 400 titles for the month.
With that said, it seems like some publishers also believe that the marketplace isn’t necessarily flooded with content if one develops a certain kind of video game.
Zhenghua Yang, who works for the indie publisher Serenity Forge, advocated that it was weird to say it but there weren’t enough quality developers out there in the market.
He said that he didn’t think most game developers were under the right mindset when they were creating their video games.
He further added that didn’t just hold true for first-time game developers but surprisingly also for game developers who had years of experience with game development.
Yang also spoke about how he still saw some game developers making “the same mistakes with the same kind of incorrect motive for making games.”
And if we can just move away from the traditional gaming market for a little bit, then we have Sony CEO Kaz Hirai who recently stated that augmented reality video games would become the core aspect of the company’s mobile efforts.
Kaz told reporters that Pokemon Go was a real game changer in terms of giving momentum to the augmented reality mobile video game market and that he was very interested in the fact that the game had the potential to really change the way people moved. Literally.
Well, no one can argue with the fact that Pokemon Go augmented reality mobile video game for Android and iPhone has been a phenomenal success.
Not only that, but the game has also changed the way some companies distribute their advertising budget with rumors about McDonalds striking a deal with The Pokemon Company for a branded landmark in the augmented reality video game, gaining a lot of traction.
What do you think about the console generation wars? Do you think Sony outdid Microsoft by releasing its big guns earlier than its arch rival or do you think that Microsoft will be able to take advantage of Sony’s mistakes in launching Sony Playstation 4 Pro?
Do let us know your thoughts by using the comments section below.
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