How Fallout 4 PC Mods Will Work on Xbox One and PS4

Bringing Fallout 4 mods from PC to the console versions of the RPG is a "big deal" and is something that Bethesda has wanted to do with its games since the days of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind more than 10 years ago. That's according to Bethesda marketing executive Pete Hines, who talked more about Bethesda's plans for modding in a new video interview with Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb.

"It's a big deal," Hines said. "It's something that [Fallout 4 game director Todd Howard] has talked about for years; since back on Morrowind in 2002. [Modding is] something we've always supported, with all the Bethesda Game Studios titles."

What's different with Fallout 4, however, is that the game's mods--at least some of them--will be playable on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. The Fallout 4 Creation Kit--the tool suite that PC players can use to make mods--will launch in early 2016 for PC, with supported mods coming to Xbox One sometime later. The functionality is expected to launch on PS4 further into the future.

Hines didn't go into specifics about how Fallout 4's PC mods will work on console, but he did talk at a high level about Bethesda's idea for how it hopes the system will function.

"We want to do it in a way that's easy," Hines said. "This is not about, 'You have to have a PC,' 'You have to do it yourself.' The idea is you go to play the game, there's a menu option, you click on it, and there's a bunch of stuff for you to download. And you click on the stuff that you want and you start playing a game with these new mods. So we want it to be a really streamlined, fun experience. There's still specifics that we have to work out. It's part of our post-launch plan."

Hines' summation of how Bethesda would like to see Fallout 4 mods work on console sounds a lot like how the modding system for Skyrim works on PC with the Steam Workshop. That's not a bad thing.

As for why Bethesda is bringing Fallout 4's PC mods to Xbox One before PS4, Hines said in a previous interview that Microsoft's history in and knowledge of both the PC and console spaces is partly the reason.

"Why Microsoft? They are a company that is in both of those spaces; they're heavily in the PC space; they're heavily in the console space," Hines said back in June. "They had some pretty good ideas about how to make something like this work."

Although Fallout 4 does not yet officially support PC mods--nor is the game even out yet--that hasn't stopped players from making them. One user created a mod that improves the RPG's graphics.

Fallout 4 officially launches on November 10 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Reviews for the game started showing up today. GameSpot's review scored the game a 9/10, while other reviews were quite positive.