Bethesda Game Studios chief Todd Howard has responded to a backlash over Starfield paid mods, confirming the developer will look at its pricing model for Creations content.
“As it comes to, particularly the creators out there, look, our view is, a lot of them have gone from hobbyists to professionals. And it’s part of our job to make sure they can do that and they do get paid and they see the monetary rewards if they make awesome content,” Howard said.
This is such horseshit. This isn’t about “making sure that they get paid” this is about Bethesda getting a cut of those profits, nothing more nothing less.
The way modding is right now is perfect, at least from a user’s perspective. You get everything for free but if you can afford it and want to then you can donate to the creator.
There’s no need for a paid system because that excludes people who can’t afford to pay for the stuff. They are already excluded from official content because everything comes as a paid dlc nowadays and now you also want to exclude them from modding?
I think this will only hurt the modding community and the only ones really profiting from this are the corporations.
I made a couple of mods and published them on Nexus, and with the donation programme actually made a little money from it, even though I didn’t expect anything. If you want to make money modding without completely shitting up the user experience you’re better off just shoving them on Nexus and maybe making a ko-fi or something.
Exactly, just another corporate cash grab. From here it will go to “you buy base game only”, but if you want this city or that quest or planet then it’s paid. You want that npc? Money. The final boss? Credit card pls. Fast travel? That’s platinum club only.
And all in the name of “why should you pay for quests you don’t like” or some other thinly veiled greed.
But they gotta keep that profit line climbing infinitely you know, somehow.
You are completely right that they want to get a cut and it’s bullshit.
But I don’t see anything wrong with paid mods, where all of the money goes to the mod author (which this situation isn’t). Some mods take months to develop and a massive amount of skill, and it’s sensible to expect payment for it.
It’s a false dichotomy between “corporations profiting” and “all mods need to be free”. To me both situations are losing ones.
It’s no shock when a game developer builds a bunch of content on a platform like UE5 and charges for it. No shock that Epic might take a cut. But when it’s a game developer building content on a platform like Starfield and Bethesda would get the cut, it should be free? Why exactly? Because you’re used to it?
The way modding is right now is perfect, at least from a user’s perspective. You get everything for free but if you can afford it and want to then you can donate to the creator. There’s no need for a paid system because that excludes people who can’t afford to pay for the stuff.
Mods would likely increase in quality if there was a financial incentive. Many gaming communities have both free and paid mods available and the paid mods tend to be much better. Assetto Corsa immediately comes to mind.
Could have fooled me, the poorly made trillion polygon models are so prolific that they end up being modded into other games where they also don’t matter nor perform well.
When you try to tell the modders not to do that, they get incredibly mad and you get kicked out of there discords.
Thanks for bringing up a point to continue the conversation, unfortunate you’re getting downvoted with only sarcastic disagreement to go on. I disagree, but only on a point of nuance – ideally that financial incentive improves the quality of mod offerings, and in some cases it does (I’ll take your word on Assetto Corsa mods). But I’d say it’s still a net-negative on the whole because then the financial incentive becomes the goal, not a quality mod. It also gives the parent company control over visibility, so they’ll promote the mods that get them the biggest cut, which inevitably will be the shiniest ones and not necessarily the ones that actually improve the game, then passionate creators get disheartened and leave.
All conjecture – I’m not super active in any modding scene, my only experience is hitting the 256 mod limit in Skyrim a long time ago.
Again with this bullshit.
This is such horseshit. This isn’t about “making sure that they get paid” this is about Bethesda getting a cut of those profits, nothing more nothing less. The way modding is right now is perfect, at least from a user’s perspective. You get everything for free but if you can afford it and want to then you can donate to the creator.
There’s no need for a paid system because that excludes people who can’t afford to pay for the stuff. They are already excluded from official content because everything comes as a paid dlc nowadays and now you also want to exclude them from modding?
I think this will only hurt the modding community and the only ones really profiting from this are the corporations.
I made a couple of mods and published them on Nexus, and with the donation programme actually made a little money from it, even though I didn’t expect anything. If you want to make money modding without completely shitting up the user experience you’re better off just shoving them on Nexus and maybe making a ko-fi or something.
Exactly, just another corporate cash grab. From here it will go to “you buy base game only”, but if you want this city or that quest or planet then it’s paid. You want that npc? Money. The final boss? Credit card pls. Fast travel? That’s platinum club only.
And all in the name of “why should you pay for quests you don’t like” or some other thinly veiled greed.
But they gotta keep that profit line climbing infinitely you know, somehow.
If it was about the content creators, then Bethesda wouldn’t be making a cut from it
As soon as he hit with the fucking language of “it’s part of our job” I was in orbit.
I thought y’all made games??
You are completely right that they want to get a cut and it’s bullshit.
But I don’t see anything wrong with paid mods, where all of the money goes to the mod author (which this situation isn’t). Some mods take months to develop and a massive amount of skill, and it’s sensible to expect payment for it.
It’s a false dichotomy between “corporations profiting” and “all mods need to be free”. To me both situations are losing ones.
It’s no shock when a game developer builds a bunch of content on a platform like UE5 and charges for it. No shock that Epic might take a cut. But when it’s a game developer building content on a platform like Starfield and Bethesda would get the cut, it should be free? Why exactly? Because you’re used to it?
Mods would likely increase in quality if there was a financial incentive. Many gaming communities have both free and paid mods available and the paid mods tend to be much better. Assetto Corsa immediately comes to mind.
Ah yeah, a trillion useless triangles that can’t even be seen at the scale the game renders at, truly worth the entire price of the game per car.
Yeah, definitely paying for a trillion useless triangles and not the improved physics that paid mods oftentimes offer.
Could have fooled me, the poorly made trillion polygon models are so prolific that they end up being modded into other games where they also don’t matter nor perform well.
When you try to tell the modders not to do that, they get incredibly mad and you get kicked out of there discords.
And if you really want, you can usually pirate the paid mods anyway
Thanks for bringing up a point to continue the conversation, unfortunate you’re getting downvoted with only sarcastic disagreement to go on. I disagree, but only on a point of nuance – ideally that financial incentive improves the quality of mod offerings, and in some cases it does (I’ll take your word on Assetto Corsa mods). But I’d say it’s still a net-negative on the whole because then the financial incentive becomes the goal, not a quality mod. It also gives the parent company control over visibility, so they’ll promote the mods that get them the biggest cut, which inevitably will be the shiniest ones and not necessarily the ones that actually improve the game, then passionate creators get disheartened and leave.
All conjecture – I’m not super active in any modding scene, my only experience is hitting the 256 mod limit in Skyrim a long time ago.