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6 years later, Bethesda plays down Fallout 76 mod support despite Todd Howard saying 'it's coming'
Fallout 76 will not receive official mod support, as Bethesda confirms its discontinuation, citing the need to maintain game integrity and prevent code injection.
It seems that official mod support is no longer underway for Fallout 76 as Bethesda confirms that it "won't happen" at any point.
When Bethesda first revealed its post-apocalyptic MMO at E3 in 2018 (back when that was still a thing), studio director and executive producer Todd Howard stated that the game would indeed feature mod support - albeit not until after its monumental launch. "We love mods," he exclaimed, "and so we are 100 percent committed to doing that in [Fallout] 76 as well." Years went by without any sign of official mod support, though - that is, until a 2020 panel in which another developer reassured fans that it was still in the works.
"We are definitely still working on mod support," project lead Jeff Gardiner explained. "It's coming." The developer described how the studio "had to put a lot of resources" into mod support, and they were definitely "working on it" so players should "stay tuned." Sadly, it looks like this no longer rings true - at least, according to a new interview between Bethesda and Windows Central. When asked whether fans could eventually see mod support come to fruition one day in Fallout 76, devs delved into why they "don't officially support mods."
"We've never really like, 'pushed back' on players who add UI mods and things like that. But any other mods where you would expect to have like a script extender that you often need for single-player games - that won't happen with Fallout 76." For fans of the MMO wondering why this is the case, the devs say that it's because they "have to protect the integrity of the game to make sure they players aren't injecting code and destroying the balance of the game in some way, shape, or form."
The team doesn't "officially support mods for a lot of different reasons," but nonetheless tries "not to break the UI mods" - unless it's necessary to. "Even though we don't officially support mods, we're still aware of mods that players are using for UI things." Unfortunately, the devs didn't say much else regarding the future of mod support in Fallout 76. Considering their explanation of why it hasn't happened and their statement that it "won't happen," it's safe to say Howard's 2018 promise no longer applies.