Last week, Valve announced that modders on the Steam Workshop would be able to charge for mods – starting with Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mods. The gaming community was incensed with the decision, some even going as far as sending death threats.
We knew paid mods on Steam were a bad idea, but did Valve and Bethesda really get the idea? It turns out that they did. Valve has posted an update on the Steam Workshop stating that they are cancelling the program:
We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount…
We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different.
…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.
Bethesda initally supported the feature, but have since decided that they would follow the communities wishes. They explained the decision in a two sentence update on the BethBlog:
After discussion with Valve, and listening to our community, paid mods are being removed from Steam Workshop. Even though we had the best intentions, the feedback has been clear – this is not a feature you want. Your support means everything to us, and we hear you.
What did you think about paid mods on the Steam Workshop?
