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[scitek]

I might miss the necessary context here, but if users are using Valve's infrastructure to distribute their content, then it's only fair that Valve also gets a cut if the users are making money with what they are offering on the Steam Workshop.

I don't think there's anything stopping modders from setting up a link to donate on their own page outside of Steam.

 

[Trickster]

Honestly, providing a moneymaking platform for mods, which doesn't massively favor the modders seems incredibly shortsighted and greedy. It's also especially sad given how bethesda have benefitted greatly from the modding community's support of their games.

 

[Dorsal Axe]

Some of them are just scripts. Where is the line? Who owns what? How are mods with multiple people involved going to be handled? There are a ton of questions that go along with a huge step like this, plenty of which have yet to be answered by Valve.

This reminded me that script mods are basically impossible to remove from existing Skyrim saves... so that's going to present another can of worms when it comes to the dodgy refund system.

 

[aku:jiki]

This reminded me that script mods are basically impossible to remove from existing Skyrim saves... so that's going to present another can of worms when it comes to the dodgy refund system.

That isn't actually true anymore, there are script cleaners nowadays. Like I said in my previous post, though, it's still highly possible for a novice to break their game or save through modding and Workshop offers exactly zero safeguards for it. They don't even do warning labels on potentially difficult mods.

 

[M0G]

It seems Steam is a far cry from the saviour of PC gaming rep they had for a few years. Origin showed them up with the old refund policy, Early Access lack of a filter has screwed people out of a lot of money and now this is incredible really. That awesome reputation they had is disapearing quick. I guess they think they reached that level of monopoly they were gunning for, now they show their true colours :/

 

[draetenth]

So can people not just keep their mods on nexus for free if they feel they would get more money that way?

If so I'm glad it's going down like this.

Just to reiterate: Mods can still be released for free (both on the Nexus and the Steam Workshop). At the moment, the only thing that is happening is some authors are stopping all updates to the free versions and forcing you to pay for the recent version (Wet and Cold being an example - the newest version 2.0 is only avaible by buying it). Will this change? Possibly, but we don't really know. However, one issue that comes up is that people are charging for their mods while using assets from mods that are free (or outright stealing free mods and selling them) and those authors don't want any of their work to be used by someone charging a fee. I believe one of the initial mods (a fishing one) using assets from another mod has been removed (and I think Wet and Cold is now wet because it uses assets from a mod who doesn't want someone selling their work.

What's the split between Valve and Bethesda?

50% for Bethesda and 25% for Valve.

Again, to reiterate: Valve takes a standard 30% cut from anything sold for cash on Steam. Since mods are now sold, Valve is taking their 30% of the cut. The current distribution is 25% for the modders, 30% for Valve, and 45% for Bethesda. Apparently, Bethesda can change how much they get so if you have an issue with modders only getting 25% it seems you should take it up with Bethesda. However, Valve does hold all of the money until you reach a certain point and seems to have given the okay for people to use assets from other people's free mods so they aren't exactly blameless.

Pretty surprised by some of the more recent moves by Valve.

First the $5 charge to use features on Steam and now this (if this is true of course). Didn't realise they were that hurting for money...guess Vive, that new controller along with their OS and Steamboxes drained them more than they anticipated?

This really isn't that big of a deal (and if you went through the thread about it you would understand why). The features really aren't that important (and only Steam has the ones you would lose - so no complaining about people being harsher on Origin), the people it affected aren't really people Valve cared about anyway (only play f2p and doesn't even spend a dime to buy any hats or anything - which is fine as long as you realize your aren't really getting priority over paying customers who kept getting spammed by bots for invites), and you can easily get around it - just buy something for $5 or if for some reason you can't spend $5 - just find someone who is willing to loan you $5 bucks to buy something (you could even just buy a game and gift it back to them - only gifts that you receive don't count toward $5 dollars not gifts you buy).

 

[NotoriousPUG]

Bethesda and Valve get 75% for doing absolutely nothing?

Come on, how can anyone defend this? Just another desperate money grab to kill one of the last remaining instances of community-run content creations.

Doing nothing? Is this a serious post?

 

[Aselith]

If Valve only takes 25% then more than likely Bethesda insisted on a 50% cut to be willing tolet people monetize their mods. I don't see how that's Valve's issue. 25% is better than just working for free as far as that goes so at least the creators are being enabled to make money and hopefully that can be improved over time. It sucks but it may be out of their control.

 

[OnionPowder]

Bethesda and Valve get 75% for doing absolutely nothing?

Come on, how can anyone defend this? Just another desperate money grab to kill one of the last remaining instances of community-run content creations.

So would these mods exist without Bethesda making the game? They're using Bethesda's product to generate revenue, why shouldn't they get a cut?

 

[Aselith]

So would these mods exist without Bethesda making the game? They're using Bethesda's product to generate revenue, why shouldn't they get a cut?

I think the percentage is the issue 50 creator/25 beth/25 valve would seem reasonable

 

[Trojita]

So is Nexus actually losing a severe amount of content or is that just conjecture?

 

[Stitch]

 

[Klossen]

Doing nothing? Is this a serious post?

Yes, aren't I the joker?

So would these mods exist without Bethesda making the game? They're using Bethesda's product to generate revenue, why shouldn't they get a cut?

Because they've already been paid for the game. And let's face it, many of the mods are correcting flaws that Bethesda left behind. Why should I pay Bethesda when the modder is doing work to fix Bethesda's own failures? Do you see how distorted this logic is?

And they can get a cut, but do you think it's fair, that the middle men that do nothing but stand by and let others do their work get majority of the profits? Paying for modding is a mistake anyways. Like mentioned, they might aswell just call it third-party DLC at that point. The whole principle of modding was content that was freely shared within the community. But I guess publishers saw there wasn't enough money in that so got to wreck that too.

 

[shark sandwich]

Fuck that. Valve and Bethesda should be paying modders for adding value and driving sales of Skyrim. Not taking a huge cut.

 

[Gruso]

Wait.. so we don't even know if this issue is real, yet?

Waiting until we get a non-reddit source.

Some more comments appeared in that thread, and it turns out it was a Valve source who said this:

If this is a reference to the "{LINK REMOVED}" shown in the screenshot, it's probably worth pointing out that the author typed that in, or perhaps accidentally copied and pasted that text form elsewhere. There is no removed link.

Comment link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/33oahx/valve_is_removing_mods_that_accept_donations/cqmxe2g

User: https://www.reddit.com/user/afarnsworth_valve

Steam profile: http://steamcommunity.com/id/afarnsworth/

I've edited my post with this information.

 

[Nabs]

Reddit strikes again.

 

[draetenth]

So is Nexus actually losing a severe amount of content or is that just conjecture?

It might be conjecture at this point. I'm going through the Top files for Skyrim to see if the big mods are changing.

So far, it looks like at least SkyUI and the Unofficial Patches are still free. On of the authors for the Unofficial Patch (Arthmoor who does have a paid mod) has said in the comments that the Unofficial Patches will remain free, but no word on if SkyUI will stay free. All of this could change of course, but those are really my only must have mods so I'm content at the moment.

I believe Wet and Cold (a very popular mod) will only release new versions on the workshop and for a price. However, there are issues as the mod is based upon assets of other mods (and those authors won't give permission for Wet and Cold to be sold using their assets).

 

[Shuggananas]

Good job reddit, as always

 

[Saikyo]

Really funny that GAF was already picking their pitchforks before even waiting or verifying the source, almost like they wanted something to hate valve/steam...

 

[Blastoise]

I love these.

 

[Maximo]

Really funny that GAF was already picking their pitchforks before even waiting or verifying the source, almost like they wanted something to hate valve/steam...

GAF doesn't *Need* Something to hate on Valve, they already provide plenty of Reasons.

 

[Durante]

So it wasn't even true? Wow.

 

[Qassim]

Pretty surprised by some of the more recent moves by Valve.

First the $5 charge to use features on Steam and now this (if this is true of course). Didn't realise they were that hurting for money...guess Vive, that new controller along with their OS and Steamboxes drained them more than they anticipated?

The $5 "charge" is to combat bots and scammers and I don't think it's necessarily fair to call it a "charge" either, they're just asking you to buy something at least worth $5, you still get that thing you bought (a game, content for a game, etc) - so you're not just giving $5 for the privilege of using certain steam community features.

 

[Pinko Marx]

It seems Steam is a far cry from the saviour of PC gaming rep they had for a few years. Origin showed them up with the old refund policy, Early Access lack of a filter has screwed people out of a lot of money and now this is incredible really. That awesome reputation they had is disapearing quick. I guess they think they reached that level of monopoly they were gunning for, now they show their true colours :/

They're still the saviors of the PC. We wouldn't be anywhere near where we are today without their innovations on the Steam platform. Whether we like what they're doing now or not, their contributions to PC gaming is undeniable.
With that being said, I haven't read much into what this is,but my first impression is that it seems like a crappy thing to do, but I'm not so inclined to believe a random tweet.

Edit: Looks like it's not even true. PFFFFBBBBBTTTT.

 

[OnionPowder]

Pretty surprised by some of the more recent moves by Valve.

First the $5 charge to use features on Steam and now this (if this is true of course). Didn't realise they were that hurting for money...guess Vive, that new controller along with their OS and Steamboxes drained them more than they anticipated?

That $5 rule is great. I get spam bots all the fucking time. When I was like 15 one even stole my password

 

[Aselith]

$5 charge lmao

 

[maestrillo]

Because money. Gotta get yours.

Get money of everything, including things that don't deserve

 

[conweller]

A mod should probably change the topic and title.

That now costs $5. Mod gets $0.25, NEOGAF $4.75.

 

[water_wendi]

Seriously though its a shit move but what are gamers going to do? Abandon their gaming libraries? Learn to deal with whatever Valve throws your way because theres nothing to be done about it.

 

[InsaneTiger]

Well they goes the modding community. Killed with a single stroke.

Impressive.

 

[params7]

It seems Steam is a far cry from the saviour of PC gaming rep they had for a few years. Origin showed them up with the old refund policy, Early Access lack of a filter has screwed people out of a lot of money and now this is incredible really. That awesome reputation they had is disapearing quick. I guess they think they reached that level of monopoly they were gunning for, now they show their true colours :/

Well they're not a non profit organization. A private company basically monopolized what was once (still is to some extent) an open platform. Number one aim will always be to find ways to maximize profits. Except they're really killing their fanbase now.

PC mainstream gaming needs to find a way now to exist independently of Steam. Otherwise PC will just become another console.

 

[SerTapTap]

Ugh. I really do support paid mods as a Thing, but I really hate how Valve is handling this in almost every other regard. The 25% cut you get is terrible. Youtube gives you 55% of ad earnings and frankly Youtube does way more for video creators than I see Valve doing for mod creators.

 

[Cato the Censor]

This thread is so delicious. "What! A tweet stating an unproven fact about Valve being greedy? No, lets not check or anything like that. To the Hatemobile!"

Gratz to those people who just did a drive-by post, made up their mind and will never look at this topic again.

 

[EviLore]

Debunked: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=161389696&postcount=196