Steam begins allowing mod creators to sell their work

[trag3dy]

Bethesda Game Studios has a history of providing strong support for user modifications in their games. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has continued that tradition, adding a comprehensive editor and integration with the Steam Workshop back in 2012. There are now well over 24,000 free mods available for Skyrim via the Steam Workshop, adding everything from new soundscapes to epic multi-hour quests, to tweaks that perfect the reflections on water.

With the launch of paid mods in Skyrim, you can now support mod authors that are creating top quality items and amazing new experiences for your game.

 

 

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/?snr=1_41_4__42

 

I personally see this as a bad thing. It goes against the spirit of what modding always meant for the pc and it's gaming communities. And the absolute worst part of it is that Valve gets 75% of the sale.

 

Luckily the nexus still exists.

[Max Norris]

Yea don't like the sound of that either.. just going to hurt the mod community in the long run.  (And 75%?? Jeeezus.)

[Vandalsquad]

Don't expect anything less from the ###### company Valve has become.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

Just another way to buy a hat. GG Valve.

[trag3dy]

Yea don't like the sound of that either.. just going to hurt the mod community in the long run.  (And 75%?? Jeeezus.)

 

Yeah. It's absurd.

 

Remember when we thought Steam greenlight was gonna be a wonderful thing and we'd have all these super high quality indie games?

 

I can see this going that direction very quickly. And valve won't do anything about it because it will make them a lot of money with them literally doing nothing to earn it.

 

In fact there are already people trying to sell unfinished mods that can't even be obtained by playing the game normally. They require the console to spawn them in or interact.

[Guest]

Imagine getting paid for your hard work. Imagine that.

 

Wonderful move!

Remember when we thought Steam greenlight was gonna be a wonderful thing and we'd have all these super high quality indie games?

 

Which we do. That doesn't mean that bad titles are not going to exist.

 

Just like before when you needed to have a publisher to get on Steam. Your point is non-existent.

[trag3dy]

Imagine getting paid for your hard work. Imagine that.

 

Wonderful move!

 

Which we do. That doesn't mean that bad titles are not going to exist.

 

Just like before when you needed to have a publisher to get on Steam. Your point is non-existent.

 

Sure except for the last 20+ years the modding community for games has never been about money. It was all about creating custom content for games that both the creator and the community would enjoy. It was never a major concern of modders to make money for their work until now apparently.

 

I have nothing against compensating people for their work when I feel it is deserved. And if mod authors needed financial help they weren't afraid of asking, either. And if people liked their work they were more than willing to donate to them.

 

This however is valve taking 75% of the sale for doing literally nothing. And you talk about people getting paid for their hard work..

 

On skyrim nexus every mod page has a donate button where people can donate to the mod author if they feel like it. That's all that Valve should have done and they should not feel entitled to 75% of the donation/sale.

 

As for the rest, all I'm saying is that some sort of quality control would be nice. People selling unfinished mods that don't even function in a given game is going to be the norm. Because Valve allows it.

[Xtreme2damax]

Yes Wonderful move. /s

 

I think something is quite wrong here when there are even several modders up in arms and brewing a crap storm over this. I'm reading tons of negative reception and complaints even on the Nexus besides Steam forums. Ofc bottom barrel Steam workshop "modders" won't have an issue with this and have started re-listing their mods as paid when this was announced.

 

The asinine part of it all is 75% of mod sales goes to Bethesda and Valve. Creators only get 25% and only get paid when their mod surpasses $400 in sales. What's wrong with allowing people to simply donate? Oh.. that's right because Valve and Bethesda want free money. If modders wanted to charge for mods they've had the opportunity to do so and this is pointless.They want to take away freedom and control from modding communities to fuel their greed and agendas as well as the workshop "modders" accepting this scheme hoping to make a quick buck. The majority got their mods from Nexus so I don't see this going over very well, everyone that had will still get mods from the Nexus - the recommended and best place for mods. Only the ignorant, uninformed, gullible and those that don't care with deep pockets or those under the assumption they are supporting the modder who are oblivious to the Nexus will purchase mods through the Steam workshop.

 

Also, several mods use shared assets and resources from elsewhere. There's discussion on the Nexus of making the donation options more prominent and getting SKSE etc.. to convert over to a GPL3 license.

 

There is so much more wrong with this and I don't feel like mentioning it all atm. Someone else may spare me the trouble in the meantime..

[lassekongo83]

[FunkyMike]

I personally see this as a bad thing. It goes against the spirit of what modding always meant for the pc and it's gaming communities. And the absolute worst part of it is that Valve gets 75% of the sale.

 

Luckily the nexus still exists.

 

They get 75% of the action? : O 

[Vandalsquad]

Imagine getting paid for your hard work. Imagine that.

 

Wonderful move!

 

Which we do. That doesn't mean that bad titles are not going to exist.

 

Just like before when you needed to have a publisher to get on Steam. Your point is non-existent.

 

Except they are getting paid ###### all for their creations now. And even those who don't want their mods behind a pay wall will have to upload them before someone else does.

 

Developers are now getting PAID for mods that fix problems in their games. Think about that for one minute. I can't wait for the mod pre-orders to start appearing. Or have they already...?

[trag3dy]

They get 75% of the action? : O 

 

Yes. But only after the mod makes $400 in sales.

[Torolol]

is there minimum price that mod makers must obey?

[MikeChipshop Member]

Imagine getting paid for your hard work. Imagine that.

 

Wonderful move!

 

The modding community has always been about the fun, the love and seeing what you could do. 

You were always able to sell your creations if you so wanted, but little chose to do so. This hopefully wont change that (especially not at that cut).

[trag3dy]

is there minimum price that mod makers must obey?

 

Yes I think it's around 25 cents or so. Of which Valve gets 75%.

 

Assuming of course they choose to even put a price on their mods. Which is not required for them to be on the workshop.

 

Edit: I'm mistaken. Valve only gets 30% of the sale while Bethesda gets 45%. Mod author is still given a pittance of 25%. Bethesda is as much to blame for this as Valve it would appear.

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

75%? Good god.

 

Every moddable game already has huge sites that distribute mods (like Nexus and Curse or Civ Fanatics)... With that cost, Steam won't be one of them.

 

It especially doesn't help that a mod posted on Steam can rather easily be duplicated or distributed elsewhere.

[Torolol]

And there could be case when someone made a freely distributable mods, and then others took it and registered for sale in steam.

Some gullible steam customers will get scammed.

[trag3dy]

75%? Good god.

 

Every moddable game already has huge sites that distribute mods (like Nexus and Curse or Civ Fanatics)... With that cost, Steam won't be one of them.

 

It especially doesn't help that a mod posted on Steam can rather easily be duplicated or distributed elsewhere.

 

It's worse than that. Because a lot of skyrim mods use shared assets and/or require other mods to even function properly. Some will end up being paid for mods while others won't. It's a huge cluster ###### of a mess.

 

There's so many ways it can be abused by people trying to cash in on this I can't believe anyone actually thought this was a good idea.

[+Zagadka Subscriber²]

I support the idea of compensating modders... but most of the ones who release content of sufficient size/skill/etc do so happily as a hobby, and accept donations as payment. There has NEVER been a movement by modders to force monetize the scene.

[trag3dy]

Totalbiscuit weighs in:

 

 

I feel like he's over looking several key things though. He keeps going on about how modders didn't charge for their work before simply because they couldn't and I don't agree with that. Most modders do it because they wanted to and enjoyed doing it. Saying they only didn't do it because they couldn't is not right. There's quite a few other flaws in this argument too, that I won't go into right now.

 

Also when he talks about how it might bring more talented mod makers in. That's true, it might. But one thing we do know for certain that it's doing is bringing in people who are stealing other peoples mods and putting them up for sale and people who are selling unfinished mods that don't work and/or are of extremely low quality to make a quick buck. Those things are happening already. There are no safeguards in place to prevent any of that either.

[+Asmodai MVC]

Personally I think allowing modders a CHOICE to make their mods available for free or charging is a great feature for Steam to add.  I'm totally NOT in the "but mods have always been free!" camp.

Giving the mod creator only 25% is ridiculous though.

I think traditionally online stores take 30% so Valve and the game creator should split that and leave 70% for the mod creator.  Heck even if both took the full 30% that would still leave 40% for the developer which is way better than the crappy 25% they offer now.  Really though I think anything under 50% is unfair but then I'm not a mod creator.  It will be interesting to see if mod creators embrace this not.

[Noir Angel]

The actual idea of people launching paid mods? I don't have a problem with it. But Bethseda getting 45% of the sales when they do 0% of the work? That's complete BS. It's absurd that the people doing all of the actual work, the people making the mods, are those taking the smallest cut of the profits. What an utter joke.

[+Asmodai MVC]

The actual idea of people launching paid mods? I don't have a problem with it. But Bethseda getting 45% of the sales when they do 0% of the work? That's complete BS. It's absurd that the people doing all of the actual work, the people making the mods, are those taking the smallest cut of the profits. What an utter joke.

 

While I agree with you for the most part I wouldn't say Bethesda did 0% of the work.  If the mod is on a Bethesda game and runs in the Bethesda created engine possibly made using the Bethesda created API and Bethesda created mod tools then they deserve some cut.  Likewise if it's distributed and advertised by Steam then Valve should get a cut.  The mod creator should absolutely get the largest cut though.

[trag3dy]

Personally I think allowing modders a CHOICE to make their mods available for free or charging is a great feature for Steam to add.  I'm totally NOT in the "but mods have always been free!" camp.

Giving the mod creator only 25% is ridiculous though.

I think traditionally online stores take 30% so Valve and the game creator should split that and leave 70% for the mod creator.  Heck even if both took the full 30% that would still leave 40% for the developer which is way better than the crappy 25% they offer now.  Really though I think anything under 50% is unfair but then I'm not a mod creator.  It will be interesting to see if mod creators embrace this not.

 

A donation button would have served that purpose just fine and wouldn't have caused as much of an uproar. Popular and well made mods will get what they deserve and the garbage will fall to the bottom and get nothing, like they deserve.

 

But even still, steam has nothing in place to prevent people from taking mods from other sites, claiming them as their own and then putting it on steam for sale. Which is happening already. Valves hands off approach with this is not going to cut it.

[Boo Berry]

Just wait until Valve pushes this out to other games... hopefully not Left 4 Dead 2.