Paid Mods On Steam
It used to be that the only way to make money from a mod was a) make a standalone sequel or remake b) use it as a portfolio to get hired by a studio or c) back in the pre-broadband days, shovel it onto (and even then, it almost certainly wasn’t the devs who profited). As of last night, that changed. Mod-makers can now charge for their work,.It’s far too soon to know the long-term outcome of Valve offering the option for mod creators to charge for their work, which went live yesterday using Skyrim as a test case.
Everyone has an opinion, and I’ll try to cover the main angles below, but first I simply want to express simple sadness. Not fatalistic sadness – I’m genuinely curious as to how this will play out, and there’s high potential for excitement – but End Of An Era sadness.Mods, free, fan-made modifications or extra content for existing games, have been a part of PC gaming for almost as long as there has been PC gaming.
To think that this is changing, in that there may be less availability of free mods, and in that mod teams may now embark on their projects with a mind to earning a living from it rather than purely enthusiasm, is bittersweet. I do want people to be compensated for their work, and I do want people to be able to lay hands on more resources to make their endeavours – so often wilder than anything which would arise from an established studio – better still, as well as potentially receiving more co-operation from the original games’ developers. I don’t resist this change, but I am misty-eyed for the potential loss of what was. It was always delightful to gaze at all this weird, wonderful, usually broken fare, created from pure love and determination. Mods gave new, extended life and flair to games including Half-Life, Doom and Skyrim, mods lead to DayZ and Team Fortress, mods are as PC gaming as PC gaming gets. I salute them.In all honesty, it’s highly unlike that free mods will go away, not least because it can be hard to make players blindly stump up for unknown quantities, but change is upon us. The gulf between hobbyist and professional is shrinking, and while that means more potential for projects to go off the rails, it also means more potential for new ideas and new voices to reach an audience.
In all honesty, I don’t not strongly for or against this move, so don’t expect a tubthumping THIS IS WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN conclusion. I do want to look at some of the major arguments for and against this new age of paid mods, however.FORMost of all, this is a motivation for people to make this stuff, to make it better, and to be compensated for it.
Potentially, it also creates yet more routes into game development that don’t involved signing your life away to a big studio or publisher. Additionally, it removes even more barriers from making money from truly out-there stuff: without the same degree of risk as making a game from scratch, this can be the true test of If You Build It, They Will Come.Someone with a wild idea, someone from a minority background or with an outsider perspective, no longer need necessarily make an entire game, and all the time and financial risk that entails, to put something out in the world. Don’t focus on uncomfortable ideas of someone becoming a millionaire from digital hat sales: creators being better able to afford to do something adventurous or elaborate is enormously meaningful here.We can also look at this as long-overdue tribute to an ethos which has made PC gaming the vibrant, impossibly wide-ranging scene we have today. Without mods we wouldn’t have Team Fortress or Dota 2, DayZ or Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Heroes of the Storm or Natural Selection, Counter-Strike or Killing Floor, Dear Esther or League of Legends, Antichamber or Garry’s Mod, Red Orchestra or Stanley Parable.
When Valve announced last week that Steam was now selling paid mods through the Workshop, starting with, reaction from Steam users was overwhelmingly negative. Mods, many Steam users believe, should be free, and the introduction of paid mods on Steam sets a potentially damaging precedent.After the announcement, Steam was flooded with and.Today, Skyrim developer Bethesda Game Studios, further explaining its position on paid mods, saying it's listening to players 'and will make changes as necessary.' 'We have a long history with modding, dating back to 2002 with The Elder Scrolls Construction Set,' the company said. 'It's our belief that our games become something much more with the promise of making it your own.
Even if you never try a mod, the idea you could do anything is at the core of our game experiences.' Bethesda goes on to explain that it wants more players to experience — and develop — mods for its games. It began talking to Valve about paid mods through Steam Workshop back in 2012.' In our early discussions regarding Workshop with Valve, they presented data showing the effect paid user content has had on their games, their players, and their modders,' the company said. 'All of it hugely positive. They showed, quite clearly, that allowing content creators to make money increased the quality and choice that players had.
They asked if we would consider doing the same.' 'We believe the best should be paid for their work and treated like the game developers they are.' Bethesda said it had one demand of Valve: The Skyrim Steam Workshop had to be open, not curated like some other games on Steam.' We believe most mods should be free,' Bethesda said.
'But we also believe our community wants to reward the very best creators, and that they deserve to be rewarded. We believe the best should be paid for their work and treated like the game developers they are. But again, we don't think it's right for us to decide who those creators are or what they create.' Bethesda goes on to talk about the revenue split between modders, Valve and publishers, saying the 30 percent cut that Valve gets is based on standard percentages. Bethesda said it determined how the rest was split, with 25 percent going to the modder and the remaining 45 percent going to Bethesda. The company admits the revenue split is 'debatable.'
'Is this the right split?' The company said. 'There are valid arguments for it being more, less, or the same. It is the current industry standard, having been successful in both paid and free games. After much consultation and research with Valve, we decided it's the best place to start.'
'If it needs to change, we'll change it.' But that could change, the company said.' The 25 percent cut has been operating on Steam successfully for years, and it's currently our best data point. More games are coming to Paid Mods on Steam soon, and many will be at 25 percent, and many won't.
We'll figure out over time what feels right for us and our community. If it needs to change, we'll change it.' Finally, Bethesda addressed concerns over digital rights management related to mods through Steam.' Some are concerned that this whole thing is leading to a world where mods are tied to one system, DRM'd and not allowed to be freely accessed,' the company said. 'That is the exact opposite of what we stand for. Not only do we want more mods, easier to access, we're anti-DRM as far as we can be.
Paid Mods On Steam Mac
Most people don't know, but our very own Skyrim DLC has zero DRM. We shipped Oblivion with no DRM because we didn't like how it affected the game.' There are things we can control, and things we can't. Our belief still stands that our community knows best, and they will decide how modding should work. We think it's important to offer choice where there hasn't been before.' We will do whatever we need to do to keep our community and our games as healthy as possible.
We hope you will do the same.' Update: Shortly after Bethesda posted its thought on paid mods coming to Skyrim, Valve from the game's Steam Workshop, saying ' Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating.'