Paid mods on Steam?

[EricKei]

It seems that Steam has opened up the floodgates, making it possible for Workshop creators to begin offering paid mods (read: DLC) through their service more easily. I just can't see this ending well x.x They don't really have quality control as it is, save for users grouping up to downvote truly bad stuff into oblivion.

First game to feature this will be Skyrim (which will, to be fair, still have over 24 thousand free mods still available, so it's not like there isn't an alternative).

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/a...snr=1_41_4__42

[RayvenQ]

Nope, just Nope. Unless it's something that seriously adds to the gameplay, or is something equal to the DLC/Expansions, I'm not paying a thing. It also goes against the spirit of modding.

Being able to donate to the creator or a "Pay what you want, if you want" scheme however, would be fine.

[Salted Grump]

Best part? It's a 25/75 split between the mod creator and steam/the developers/publishers. And the mod creator doesn't get to see a single red cent until it's over 100$ in revenue, so they need to sell 400$ equivalent.

The fact that there's mods going for more than what the base game is, as it's the mod maker who sets the asking price, is both hilarious, and idiotic to the extreme.

Tl,Dr; This is gonna crash and burn, and I'm fairly certain Bethesda's only in on it to create a shitnado by torpedoing the nexus and 'slab.

[EricKei]

Wait, only 25% to the creator? That's extortionate! o_O

Rayven - they do allow "name your own price" setups, it simply remains to be seen how many modders will choose to use it.

[Salted Grump]

Yep; the remaining 75% is split between Valve, the developer of the base game, and the publisher of the base game. So, in Skyrim's case, Bethesda's getting 50% on the barrel.

[Racket_Man]

I do know one of the mods that will make tons of $$$'s is Black Mesa (original Half-Life remake for the new Source engine) . The Developers will be offering 2 versions a free version and a paid version. The free version will be just that free. The paid version will include other stuff such as DMs, multi-player maps and workshop access.

The current free mod release is now 2 1/2 years old and is FABULOUS

I (and a LOT of other people) am/are waiting for the paid version to be released hopefully in the near future.

[RayvenQ]

I do know one of the mods that will make tons of $$$'s is Black Mesa (original Half-Life remake for the new Source engine) . The Developers will be offering 2 versions a free version and a paid version. The free version will be just that free. The paid version will include other stuff such as DMs, multi-player maps and workshop access.

The current free mod release is now 2 1/2 years old and is FABULOUS

I (and a LOT of other people) am/are waiting for the paid version to be released hopefully in the near future.

See, something like that will be worth paying for, because, lets face it, calling it simply a mod is not quite accurate given the scope of it.

However, I can only see this going badly, as Developers and publishers and possibly modders only see the $$$ potential, rather than, at least with the modders, the fact that mods were made for the passion of the game, not for possible financial gain.

[EricKei]

There's already been plenty of hate for this idea elsewhere. No surprise.

They've already taken one of the paid ones down (a $2 one that adds a fishing minigame) because it used assets from a free mod without permission. The creator claims that he misinterpreted Valve's rules about using assets from free ones to make paid ones, which is a no-no unless the original creator either gives the OK or is compensated.

[lordlundar]

Eh, I'm not opposed to mod makers trying to get money for their mods. I mean the concept is almost as old as modding itself. Several games have implemented methods to make it a possibility (Blizzard for example had a revamp on it's modding policy as an example). The problem is the execution:

- It's simply pay for, not donate to author
- The author only gets 25% of the revenue
- It's only cashed out in $100 increments
- It's only cashed out in store credit
- The system has an only 24h refund system in place (ie if a patch breaks the mod later on you're screwed)
- There is negligible moderation and oversight in the system resulting in several stolen works and blatant DMCA violations.

[gremcint]

25% isn't that crazy when you take into account that they are using
- the engine
- the music (maybe)
- the art assets
- the sales platform
and more made by someone else.

[RayvenQ]

25% isn't that crazy when you take into account that they are using
- the engine
- the music (maybe)
- the art assets
- the sales platform
and more made by someone else.

Only the sales platform (or rather, The Workshop as a sales platform) is a definate thing they are using, otherwise, (depending on how the game is geared toward mods) most mods worth their salt, that arent reskins aren't using existing assets, but are importing their own original assets and making them work with the game engine, whether that's using allowed source (thats more for programming type mods) ot a Mod API, or in the case of some games, just sheer cunning and hard work from the modders.

75% cut for valve and the developers of the game is far too much though, as it really is them making money off other peoples work for free, which would probably lead to games being geared for mods just so people will make small crappy ones in order to sell them. Hell, for game developers on the steam store, Valve only takes around a 30% cut.

Good mods are good, because they are developed because of passion for the game, not because of monetary rewards. Also mods can do a hell of a lot to keep a game alive and popular (*cough* Minecraft *cough*) and can in some cases increase sales of a game far beyond the number of years they'd expect to be profitable.

[prjkt]

75% cut for valve and the developers of the game is far too much though, as it really is them making money off other peoples work for free, which would probably lead to games being geared for mods just so people will make small crappy ones in order to sell them. Hell, for game developers on the steam store, Valve only takes around a 30% cut.

I don't think it's too much, rather than looking at it 25% mod creater/75% valve, if you look at the break down;
25% goes to mod creators - obvious
25% to the distribution platform (fair, it is Steam's bandwidth/disk space, market etc. - the retailer has to make some profit)
25% goes to the game dev- they created/modded the game engine, textures, sounds, basically everything the mod creator started work with.
25% goes to the publisher - they promoted/bank rolled the original game, quite possibly own the mechanical royalty rights - it's only fair they get a cut off any profit made from their investment.

And out of the 50% split that goes to the game dev/publisher, there'll be other royalties and fees that need to get paid out for any third party technologies in use - Creative/EAX, PhysX, Havok etc.

It's a pretty decent way for a mod developer to legitimately sell their work without having to delve into the legal mess that is copyright - especially when there are multiple parties involved....

Who knows, in time these percentages might get re-worked over time

[RayvenQ]

Even then, as said, you only get paid once your portion of the proceeds reaches $100 and where does that go? Straight into your steam wallet with no way of tranferring it out, so once you buy something on Steam, Valve gets a portion of their money back.

Plus, for certain games, if it goes through, it will be extrodinarily divisive, with multiplayer servers being behind paywalls that have nothing to do with the costs of the running of the server etc.

Possibly a good idea, for larger mods etc, but the way it is executed is abysmal. A "Pay what you want" model (which their touted system actually isn't, its justa "pay something between x and y price" They could just have easily have a (mod creator enabled) donation button on workshop items, Valve would still get their cut, as would the publishers and Devs, but it's a better way.

Plus, Steam does NO curation, its all community driven (aka valve lets people do the work, for free) I mean just look at the godawful greenlight debacle that has and is still happening on steam.

If Valve's plan is the shape of things to come, I'll mourn the loss of mods on the PC platform.

I've made mods in the past, albeit small and not that great but still, I wouldn't dream of charging people, thats not really the spirit of modding having mods being mandatory paid for (with the modders discretion) is yet another slide down on the slippery slope that was DLC's, is now Freemium and now this.

[TheSHAD0W]

This is becoming a huge disaster, with some free mods getting DMCA take-downs from people who've stolen them and put them up for sale. Forbes weighs in on the practice.

[wolfie]

This is becoming a huge disaster, with some free mods getting DMCA take-downs from people who've stolen them and put them up for sale.

WTF? From what you're saying, it sounds like person "A" creates a mod and releases it free. Person "B" downloads a copy, re-uploads it as a paid mod, and sends a DMCA takedown notice against person "A" for distributing "pirate" copies of the mod?

If that's what's happening, person "B" needs to be slapped down HARD - a lifetime ban from Steam (including cut-off of access to everything they've bought) sounds like a good starting point.