I guess y’all wanted some mods on your consoles after all.
Fallout 4 publisher Bethesda revealed today that the launch of mods on Xbox One had 50 times more traffic than the initial launch on PC. This means that the Xbox One mods section on Bethesda.net had 50 times more clicks than the PC channel during their respective launches. Mods are community-created add-ons that can change the way a game works, and they’re a huge part of extending the life of releases like Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Except, up until this point, mods were exclusively available on PC because of the open nature of the Windows platform. Bethesda, with the hopes of keeping more fans playing Fallout 4 for a longer period of time, decided to build this from the start with mod support in mind. That enabled it to make its own Bethesda.net portal, where community developers can submit their creations and where players can get mods for their Xbox One or PC copy of Fallout 4.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1966886,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"B"}']This looks like a strong launch for mods on console, and it suggests that those players were dying for this kind of control over their games. Mods enable Fallout 4 fans to change the kinds of weapons they get, the kinds of houses they can own, and the look of their character models. With 50 times more traffic for the official mods channel, Xbox One owners are showing how much demand exists for this content. PlayStation 4 owners will get their own chance to do the same some time later this month when the feature goes live on that platform.
Xbox traffic was 50x the initial #Fallout4 PC mod launch. It's a new world & just the beginning. New features & PS4 support in the works.
— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) June 1, 2016
Of course, one of the major reasons that the official Bethesda Mods channel had more traffic from Xbox One than PC is that most players on Windows already install mods manually. The benefits of this are that they can use mods featuring copyrighted material that Bethesda, Sony, and Microsoft couldn’t approve for their distribution networks. Console owners, however, don’t have a choice about where they get their mods from. It’s Bethesda.net or nothing — and most people are choosing Bethesda.net.