Why This Fallout 4 Mod Pissed Off Major League Baseball

One Fallout 4 player created a very simple mod that lets players wear Boston Red Sox jerseys. Major League Baseball's legal department really isn't happy about this.

An MLB spokesperson told the Boston Globe that they're planning legal action:

It seems that they've made good on that threat, too. The Boston Red Sox mod was originally hosted on Nexusmods.com. However, now the listing for that mod says it's "under review by a moderator." As a result, you can't download it.

Fallout 4 lets players visit Diamond City, a settlement created in the ruins of the Red Sox's stadium Fenway Park. In the standard version of the game, players can buy a generic baseball uniform here. Modder Richie Branson decided to add the Red Sox logo to the uniform along with star player David Ortiz's name and number. As he explained to the Globe, he felt this modification made the game's depiction of Boston more authentic:

Branson added that he was surprised by the MLB's reaction. After all, his mod is a free download. He further expressed his frustration on Twitter:

I can understand why he'd be baffled by the MLB's crackdown on the mod. A player wearing a virtual Red Sox jersey in a video game doesn't cause any kind of harm to them. If anything, MLB's overblown reaction to the mod is probably more harmful to their image than the actual mod. Still, they've got the law on their side so it's unlikely this mod will survive.

Fallout 4 launched earlier this week on PS4, Xbox One and PC. While some players are already making mods, we'll see even more once Bethesda releases an official toolset for PC in early 2016. Mods created with Bethesda's "Creation Kit" will be shareable with players on all platforms.