When Fallout 4 made its first public appearance, the announcement was packed with promised features, including for the first time ever, offering mods to consoles. This was done via publishers Bethesda’s very own hub for mods on Bethesda.net where the consoles (and PC) can browse in-game and download any mod to a user’s liking. The modding community has been thriving on PC via community driven sites like the NexusMods growing list of sites.
The Xbox One has received modding support in April, but unfortunately Bethesda has to can the idea for the PS4, as Sony did not agree on the terms of allowing it to happen. This also goes to the upcoming Skyrim Special edition, the remaster of Skyrim for the PS4 and Xbox One, which were tentatively to support modding as well for both consoles.
While mod support on consoles on paper is a great idea, like the idea to monetise mods, it has its repercussions. Many PC mods were copied and uploaded to Bethesda.net without the consent of the original modder that created them on day 1. Modding and its now established community has always been tangled with many legal issues, which is probably why most devs do not try to engage with it.
It would be interesting to know what actually caused Sony to back out from enabling mod support, and how in detail Bethesda’s method of allowing mod support works behind the scenes. There must be a good reason why Sony passed up on this deal.