Steam Workshop now Selling Game Mods *UPDATE*, Paid Mods Gone

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User migles gave me a tip about an interesting development on Steam. Valve was always relatively open-minded in terms of game mods - in fact, some of their biggest franchises like Counter Strike and Team Fortress started off as user-created mods. The Steam Workshop was Valve's way of distributing such game mods via their Steam platform and now it also allows mod creators to sell their creations online.​
Revenue from selling these modifications is split between Valve, the developers of the original games and the mod developers, the latter getting 25% of the proceeds.​
As of right now you can only sell mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but the new distribution platform shows promise to aspiring mod developers and puts the limelight on an activity that used to be relegated to the fringe of the gamingverse.​
Update: Valve removed paid mods from the Workshop. Here's a statement from an employee:

"We underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here.
"Now that you've backed a dump truck of feedback onto our inboxes, we'll be chewing through that, but if you have any further thoughts let us know."

 

migles

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i think this is really a bad idea :/

ok its good that provides mod creators a change to make money from their work and contribution but the cons are too much...
honestly i would preefer they instead of a pay option they should offer "donate money to this mod creator" instead..

think about this:

most of the free stuff we had on the past will be now behind a pay wall...
this will include either: skins that can be made on 5 minutes. and dont have any work. pathetic stupid mods (i saw a genitals horse mod selling for 99$ which is just a skin)
and dont forget, that wonderfull bug fixing packs.. now behind a paywall..

this will also encorage people to steal mods somewhere place, and put them for money on steam workshop
or download a mod from workshop, make a very small addition\edit and sell it...

but what i can't stop thinking is. now companies can release a game full of bugs and minimal testing, players will fix the game for them for free.
players will sell mods to fix the broken game, company gets a big share of that player work.

therefore there will be cases a player will buy a broken game for 50 euros. and have to pay 10 for a mod that fixes that game...
the people that are happy to make a bug fixing mod will be happy to make a penny from it, but the company, the one that didnt fix the game, will get a big piece of the money that mod creator deserved...
 

The Real Jdbye

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I'm all for allowing people to sell mods on Steam Workshop, but only 25% of the profit goes to them? It should be the other way around.
They did all the work on the mod. People still need the original game to play it, so the original devs of that game have already gotten their share. They shouldn't be making that much money from something that isn't their work. 25% would be acceptable since it is after all based on their work, but no more.
 

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I think it's a great initiative that can work as incentive for developers to make bigger, better mods. 25% is not a small cut - it's actually quite substantial if compared to other industries. First of all, there would be no mods if not for the games, so the original developers do deserve a cut. Secondly, if not for Valve's ecosystem and hosting, the modders wouldn't even get the chance to monetize, so they deserve some profit as well. Modders now have a legal outlet to distribute their content and that's great, in any other scenario they'd earn exactly a 100% of 0$.
I'm all for allowing people to sell mods on Steam Workshop, but only 25% of the profit goes to them? It should be the other way around. They did all the work on the mod. People still need the original game to play it, so the original devs of that game have already gotten their share. They shouldn't be making that much money from something that isn't their work. 25% would be acceptable since it is after all based on their work, but no more.
Again, mods only exist because games do (not only that, mods directly use pre-existing content, so yeah) and they're only sold because Steam Workshop is there to allow it. 25% seems like a small figure but it's not, it's 25% of something rather than 100% of nothing.
 

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Paying for mods should be optional, not required. What's going to stop people from making similar mods from scratch and not placing them on other sites? If they're made from scratch, there's no way that the person selling said mod can make a claim. Steam Workshop is garbage anyways, I get my mods for free from other sources, and who's to say that the paywall mods won't suck big time?


I'm sorry, but the Schadenfreude in me hopes that all paid mods get pirated, and they will. That would be a shame, wouldn't it? :creep:
 
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Paying for mods should be optional, not required. What's going to stop people from making similar mods from scratch and not placing them on other sites? If they're made from scratch, there's no way that the person selling said mod can make a claim. Steam Workshop is garbage anyways, I get my mods for free from other sources, and who's to say that the paywall mods won't suck big time?
There's a license agreement binding the user who created the mod and Valve, obviously. That, and Valve isn't forcing anyone to ask for money for their mods, it's entirely optional.
 

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There's a license agreement binding the user who created the mod and Valve, obviously. That, and Valve isn't forcing anyone to ask for money for their mods, it's entirely optional.


Then why do I see "buy now for $3.99" on the Workshop? I'm sorry, but having a user to have to pay for a mod is utter bullshit. This is purely my opinion, donations are one thing, but paying for mods is asinine. I hope the paid mods get pirated, just saying.
 
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Then why do I see "buy now for $3.99" on the Workshop? I'm sorry, but having a user to have to pay for a mod is utter bullshit. This is purely my opinion, donations are one thing, but paying for mods is asinine. I hope the paid mods get pirated, just saying.
Mods don't make themselves, the_randomizer - they take dedication and time to create, and now modders can also benefit from making them. This is literally a win-win for everyone involved - companies are incentivized to create modding-friendly games and tools, modders are incentivized to create mods and Valve is incentivized to sell them. Everyone benefits in this arrangement.
 
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Mods don't make themselves, the_randomizer - they take dedication and time to create, and now modders can also benefit from making them. This is literally a win-win for everyone involved - companies are incentivized to create modding-friendly games and tools, modders are incentivized to create mods and Valve is incentivized to sell them. Everyone benefits in this arrangement.


I just hope it doesn't royally fuck over free alternative sites for those who aren't made of money, that's the only thing that some people fear. I prefer to use Nexus Mod Manager/manual installing mods, installing mods from the Workshop is a royal PITA and screws things up. I had to reinstall Skyrim because a Workshop mods jacked up the plugin load order. Sorry, but I'm never using the Workshop for Skyrim mods again. People are just going to get mods for free or make their own similar mods for free from scratch. People want to make money, that's great, but others won't and that's great too.

C'est la vie.
 

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Mods don't make themselves, the_randomizer - they take dedication and time to create, and now modders can also benefit from making them. This is literally a win-win for everyone involved - companies are incentivized to create modding-friendly games and tools, modders are incentivized to create mods and Valve is incentivized to sell them. Everyone benefits in this arrangement.

i agree, but i can't stop thinking about when it reaches that point i have to pay for a game, then i have to pay the workshop for bug fixing...
which skyrim is a great target of that, since bethesda games are full of bugs usually..
before i could download this bug fixing stuff for free, now i have to pay for make a game work propertly..

they should at least have policies against this kind of stuff.. mods that fix game bugs, being free.
 

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Cool, not only do people have to pay for a broken game, but they have to pay for mods that fix said broken game. Talk about an infallible system :creep:
Vote with your wallet - stop buying broken games. :)
i agree, but i can't stop thinking about when it reaches that point i have to pay for a game, then i have to pay the workshop for bug fixing...
which skyrim is a great target of that, since bethesda games are full of bugs usually..
before i could downlaod this bug fixing stuff for free, now i have to pay for make a game work propertly..


they should at least have policies against this kind of stuff.. mods that fix game bugs, being free.
Modders shouldn't have to resort to fixing a broken game, to be brutally honest. ;)
 

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Cool, not only do people have to pay for a broken game, but they have to pay for mods that fix said broken game. Talk about an infallible system :creep:
Only if the people who made the fix decide to charge money for it.
it's only for skyrim...for now. was only a matter of time before greedy valve cashed in on the m$T craze :glare:
m$T? What?
 

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I shall have to see if I can find a license agreement between the mod makers and Bethesda. With the whole let's play stuff that companies seem to be getting in on then such an agreement is bound to make for interesting reading.

m$T? What?

I am guessing it is microtransactions, I first read it as meseta which means I have probably been playing too much phantasy star.
 

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If this in any way kills off free alternative sites for mods, I assure you that things will not end well for the paid mod systems.
Did that work out for microtransactions and DLC in general? There's almost nowhere to go for these mods but up.

If people desire the content enough, they will either buy it, or pay for it.

This kind of argument about, "people will find a way to pirate the mods or something," is the exact same moral mentality of piracy in general.

Not everyone will pirate everything, and the average person doesn't pirate that much content. If workshop content does roll out as a paid platform, it will just become a different form of DLC and people WILL pay for it. It's just the norm these days, people that desire content enough, will pay for it.
 
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Did that work out for microtransactions and DLC in general? There's almost nowhere to go for these mods but up.

If people desire the content enough, they will either buy it, or pay for it.

This kind of argument about, "people will find a way to pirate the mods or something," is the exact same moral mentality of piracy in general.

Not everyone will pirate everything, and the average person doesn't pirate that much content. If workshop content does roll out as a paid platform, it will just become a different form of DLC and people WILL pay for it. It's just the norm these days, people that desire content enough, will pay for it.


To hell with the Workshop, I'll be getting my mods elsewhere, not pirated but free. I'm not going the Workshop, really, you know? I just...I don't know anymore, I don't know what to think :/ I don't know what I was trying to say. Sorry.
 

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