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Steam opens up paid mods

garethfgarethf
in General
Starting with Skyrim, but more games to follow, no doubt.

I've said it before, this kind of thing, along with producing assets for Unity's asset store, is a great way for developers to build up their skills, practice making things of the quality actually needed to sell in a real marketplace. And the cash doesn't hurt, if you make something popular. ;)

Good to see more avenues for hobbiests to transition to paid pros without a lot of up-front capital.
Thanked by 4mattbenic iceblademush EvanGreenwood tbulford

Comments

  • quintondquintond
    That is pretty interesting ... not only does it help mode developers but more people might now make their games open "moddable" to increase its life and maybe make their own mods to sell.

    Very cool. 8-}
    Thanked by 2mattbenic garethf
  • EvanGreenwoodEvanGreenwood
    This is exciting! We've been considering a more moddable approach to our future games (for a lot of reasons, but also the joy that comes from seeing what other people do with a toy you've made. And also that I came into game development vaguely through modding).
    Thanked by 1garethf
  • TuismTuism
    It's a brilliant move, they've already moved almost the entire DOTA2 monetisation over to user-generated content, and that was spearheaded by TF2 and some other stuff... It's been a long time coming!

    Damn I wish I could make level editors, moddable elements and such. Another thing to learn, but it would certainly be a beautiful thing to behold :)

    (How's this different from Steam Workshop? The charge-for-stuff part?)
  • garethfgarethf
    (How's this different from Steam Workshop? The charge-for-stuff part?)
    Not sure, exactly.
  • quintondquintond
    I think Steam Workshop allows people to mod your game but can't be charged for ... I think this is actually charging people for the mod you created ... *shrug* ... I have no idea. 8-{
  • Nuclear_MosquitoNuclear_Mosquito
    edited
    Totalbiscuit did a very informative video on this. For the most part I agree with his views on this: This is a very positive things, but there are numerous problems regarding it that have too be dealt with.

    The Video in question

    Question: How do you post videos inside a post?
  • TuismTuism
    Like this?



    I saw that the breakdown was 25% to the dev, 45% to Bethesda, and 30% to steam... That's a bit tilted in the big corp's favour. That's the one thing I'd be questioning.
  • Nuclear_MosquitoNuclear_Mosquito
    edited
    @Tuism, yeah. Can't seem to find the correct BBCode
  • TuismTuism
    Don't need BBCode :) Just put the URL in without any of the funny optional stuff after the &, so stop after the v=oGKOiQGeO-k in my example. Just hit quote on my post and you'll see what I mean.

    Back on topic, it seems there was a lot of problems with intellectual properties and that led to modders being outraged and wanting to quit the platform but can't because Valve won't take it off.

    The gist of it is - modders use other modder's work to create their own. Other modder's stuff are free, and theirs are paid for, and that sucks for the guys who made free stuff, so there's outrage. Modder who made paid-for stuff considers this and wants to take it down, but can't because Valve says they can't.

    http://www.pcgamer.com/creator-of-removed-paid-skyrim-mod-gives-his-side-of-the-story/
    https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/33qcaj/the_experiment_has_failed_my_exit_from_the/

    It's not a perfect system and needs ironing out. But it would be great if it gains stability.
  • EvanGreenwoodEvanGreenwood
    edited
    Tuism said:
    That's a bit tilted in the big corp's favour. That's the one thing I'd be questioning.
    Do you mean Bethesda or Valve by "big corp"?

    I just ask because the 30% that Valve takes pays for all the hosting and bank fees. As I recall from the Humble Bundle breakdown, Valve only get about half of that (and they bare all the ongoing hosting costs).

    I'd prefer for modders to be receiving more in any case. Hopefully that's something that each respective game that monetizes modding can negotiate.

  • dislekciadislekcia
    Looks like Valve closed down the Skyrim Workshop monetisation: http://t.co/rF6NJoq7Qw
  • EvanGreenwoodEvanGreenwood
    edited
    Wow, that is super sad. It seemed like most of the problems that Skyrim had came from the mods all being free and then suddenly turning paid (which isn't a problem with the monetized modding system as much as the choice of game to begin with).
  • TuismTuism
    Yeah I meant Bethesda's 45%. 30% is fairly standard as far as digital distribution takes go... 45% for use of IP is a LOT.

    And that was actually pretty swift action by Valve. Well done for that. But yeah that sucks for the possibility of monetising on content for modders... However the whole model needed to be rethought. Hope they get it right and make a comeback.
    Thanked by 1Kobusvdwalt9
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