Steam Workshop: Now get paid for your mod creations on Steam

[CPA]

Steam just announced that mod creators can now price their mods, starting with Skyrim.

Great idea, however, I found this part of the announcement very interesting:

Try any mod, Risk Free

It's still important to spend a little time learning about any product you are about to purchase. But, if after purchase you find that a mod is broken or doesn’t work as promised, you can easily get a refund of that mod within 24 hours of your purchase. View the full refund policy here.

Hey, Valve, I love ya, but how about applying that policy to the actual games. You know how many broken games are on Steam? A lot.

 

[Dankk]

What if you purchased the mod much longer than 24 hours ago, and while it may have worked immediately after you purchased it, the devs of the original game push an update that break your paid-mod? Will you get a refund then? What if the modder decides to stop supporting his paid mods, or - in a more extreme scenario - dies/disappears? Who will fix it then?

Mods are a finicky thing, once people start paying for stuff they are going to feel entitled to a working version. Also help and support.

Lots of problems with this. It would make more sense to just have a donate button so people can give money (if they want) to modders they really like. A la Nexus.

 

[Artorias]

Terrible idea, the can of worms this opens up is unreal especially with Valve half-assing every feature they bring out of alpha.

I can understand making a donation possible to the creator but not straight up paying for a mod.

 

[norseamd]

Hey, Valve, I love ya, but how about applying that policy to the actual games. You know how many broken games are on Steam? A lot.

They are not going to do that obviously because that would cause the developers and publishers to get very upset and such.

See nothing in those paid mods that I actually want. I already use the free version of Wet and Cold from the Nexus Mods website.

To me this is going to be a bad thing as it is probably going to bring massive greed into the mod community and none of those mods look like they have any more quality than the free mods that already exist and are made for pure human enjoyment and artistic creativity.

 

[cbrunny]

I do not like this idea. I'd rather see something like Steam paying players (very small) amounts of money to play steam greenlight games. E.g. 1 cent per hour or something like that. Paid beta testers. Still make them buy the game but treat them as actual beta testers.

 

[JumBie]

I don't pay for DLC so I sure as hell won't pay for mods.

 

[DeathReborn]

This is a very bad idea and actually moves Valve further towards EA & Ubisoft than towards gamers. Some of the mods in the paid for selection are just rip offs from other games, so it opens up the situation where you pay for a mod and then lose it to a copyright takedown. Donations are a much better system and prevents a lot of the problems this system is guaranteed to have.

As far as Valve applying these kind of refund rules to games, I would just be happy if they obeyed the laws of the land they operate in.

 

[Artorias]

Here is a doozy for you, the creator gets 25% and the rest go to Valve and which ever developer of the game.

Modder's only get paid once they make $100, and I bet you that's 25% of the $400 they must make to get a payout.

I think its been apparent for a while now that Valve has shifted toward focusing on maximizing revenue, they're no better now than your average run of the mill corporation. Valve is no longer the great saint of the gaming community.

 

[norseamd]

And Bethesda is rolling out a free weekend in collaboration with Valve to try and stir up sales of these new paid mods and crap.

The first free weekend for Skyrim ever. For a game that is well over 3 years old. If this does not just seem total mediocre to me for both Valve and Bethesda.

http://www.bethblog.com/

 

[Scooby Doo]

Ugh.... we had this issue when dealing with Sims 2 mods... what a nightmare LOL

 

[norseamd]

nevermind

 

[sandorski]

TotalBiscuit weighs in with a good list of Pros/Cons on the issue. I don't use Mods much anymore, mostly just for Minecraft, so I don't object to this much. Speaking of Minecraft, I believe Modders already get paid from Ad Revenue from Download websites, although that's mostly a guess on my part.

 

[Newbian]

Isn't charging directly for mods like this against many games tos?

It's one thing for a donation button or ad revenue as a workaround but directly getting paid was something many games said no I thought.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

They're taking one of the strengths of the PC community and really gimping it, in the name of a slice of profit that they will no doubt take.

It could introduce more high quality mods which would be cool if they're priced well and work properly but I can't help but think the negative will outweigh the positive. Especially when they can't be held accountable for the quality of the mod more than 24 hours after you've bought it.

 

[ImpulsE69]

They are taking 75%...yes...75%.

People are already stealing stuff from Nexus and putting it up as their own for sale on Steam.

This won't end well.

 

[TidusZ]

I can understand making a donation possible to the creator but not straight up paying for a mod.

Steam doesn't get 75% of the donation though.

They're taking one of the strengths of the PC community and really gimping it, in the name of a slice of profit that they will no doubt take.

It's already official, 75% cut for valve 25% for mod makers. Apparently taking 30% from all the PC game sales, which they have a monopoly on, was not enough.

I'm not going to be buying games on steam anymore. Most games can be found cheaper elsewhere (since other companies don't steal 30% from developers) and I don't want to support this greed. Steam will be where I go to do window shopping but then I'll buy elsewhere.

 

[Ricochet]

They are taking 75%...yes...75%.

People are already stealing stuff from Nexus and putting it up as their own for sale on Steam.

This won't end well.

That should earn a permaban from both sites.

I absolutely do not like this idea at all.

 

[JamesV]

Terrible idea, the can of worms this opens up is unreal especially with Valve half-assing every feature they bring out of alpha.

I can understand making a donation possible to the creator but not straight up paying for a mod.

Yea, this won't end well.

User A makes a mod that does B, and prices it at $1.

As soon as it hits the market, User C makes the same exact mod, and uploads their version for $.50.

Then user D uploads their version of the mod for free.


Will Steam start forbidding similar mods in the workshop? Better yet, will mod makers stop sharing and allowing others to incorporate parts of their mods?

 

[xantub]

Really bad idea, but I mean really bad.
What happens when a mod is put on sale which is based on other people's mods, or even including other mods, even tools used to make the mod, many of them under the copyright of "you can use and distribute this as long as you don't make money off it"? They are now illegal!

 

[TidusZ]

Hopefully steam loses some of its monopoly from this bonehead move.

 

[sandorski]

People who steal Mods will be found out and dealt with. Could be messy at first, but I suspect in time no one will dare to do it.

 

[norseamd]

So why is Valve doing this crap now instead of after they get Steam OS, Steamboxes, and the Steam VR all rolling out and generating expansion, revenue, and reputation for Gabe?

Are they not somewhat endangering the possible prospects of their new products and technology not that far from now?

 

[Artorias]

So why is Valve doing this crap now instead of after they get Steam OS, Steamboxes, and the Steam VR all rolling out and generating expansion, revenue, and reputation for Gabe?

Are they not somewhat endangering the possible prospects of their new products and technology not that far from now?

Valve and by extension Gabe is like a teflon politician, nothing really negative seems to ever stick to them. I think that could change if this criticism keeps up, but you know once a sale happens its all back to worshiping Valve.

 

[ronbo613]

Steam blows

 

[NickelPlate]

More like Valve gets paid for mod creations on Steam. It's been pretty clear I think for awhile that Valve is more interested in the past many years in making money with as little effort as possible and less focus on providing quality games and promoting the PC platform for profit. One only need look at the sheer amount of broken, crap shovelware, and early access (unfinished) titles available as an indicator of that.

The trading card thing is another perfect example. Very little cost of entry and contributes nothing to the quality of games or the platform. I'd love to know how much they're making off of all that worthless stuff. I'm sure it's plenty.

They have such a monopoly on the PC gaming industry now that they're leveraging that in new ways (scalping Skyrim modders is just the latest) to make even more money to the point of aggravating their user base. I guess they need to fund all the development of steam OS, steam machines and all the other hardware they're pushing now. Who knows what will be next? GabeN I'm sure has more "great stuff" up his sleeve.