RPS: Getting more technical - care to talk about the mod situation?

Hines: Folk probably took for granted that every time we make a game, there's a mod tool. 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.

RPS: There's a Conspiracy Theory that would suggest that you're removing the mod tools to make downloadable content more attractive. As in, if you get extra value for free, why buy the official stuff?

Hines: 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. Is that to say it'll never come out? No, I'll never say that. If we have the time, we'd absolutely like to put them out. As we've seen with Oblivion and Morrowind those things definitely create a sense of community and there's tonnes of people out there modding. 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.

Another Journalist Interjecting: Also, it's part of a PC world, which is not part of the console world which is a bigger part of the business than it might have been previously.

Hines: That's the other thing. Yes, the PC mod community does help extend the life of a product by the number of people who are still playing it, but as we've seen in Oblivion, there's still people who are playing it on the 360 in the tens of thousands two and a half years later. In insane numbers. For two years in a row we were still in the top 10 most played Xbox games in the year, with zero user-mods. So yes, I definitely think it helps extend the community - but it's not the only thing out there. The games themselves also do lend themselves to be continuously played and replayed. So yes, it's a good conspiracy theory, but has nothing to do with the facts. It's just a case of "Who the hell is going to do this?" as everyone is working on getting the game done right now.