Bethesda Wants to Release Fallout 3 Mod Tools, But Can't Make Any Promises

Well, avid addicts, so much for modding real drugs back into Fallout. In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines dropped a bomb, saying that mod tools aren't "on Bethesda's schedule right now."

"Folk probably took for granted that every time we make a game, there’s a mod tool," he said. "We explained to folk that it takes a lot of time and effort to get that tool ready for release, and it’s not on our schedule right now. We need to get the game done and out. It’s not to say we won’t do it. It’s that right now we have an enormous amount of work to do, for three platforms and all these different languages to get it out around the wall. Right now, we can’t say definitively 'there will be mod tools, and here is when they’ll be out.' That work remains to be done."

Don't worry, though. Bethesda doesn't plan on wringing your wallet dry with monetized DLC in place of a modding community. Hines did, however, applaud the idea (jokingly, we hope).

"That’s a good theory, by the way. And probably on some level it would work… but from our standpoint, whenever we do an Elder Scrolls game and release those mod tools, it takes a ton of work and effort. This is a bigger undertaking for us, and one we’ve not yet scheduled for."

"We have our own little blog we run from Bethesda, and every week we’re out there interviewing people from our mod community – so it’s clearly something we support, something we take interest in and something we place value in and spend a lot of time highlighting good mods. It’s just the tools take time. They don’t magically appear. Someone’s got to write help files for what all the scripts do, and get it released as a consumer product. Because it’s not in that state otherwise. Developers will make do with anything."

There those game developers go again -- wrecking things for everyone. How dare they?

Indignant rage aside, are you still excited about Fallout 3?