Steam Removes Paid Mods

Steam's experiment with selling mods is over. A few days after introducing the feature to Skyrim, Valve has decided to take it down completely.

Starting today, Steam users can no longer spend money on Skyrim mods. Anyone who spent money on these creations since the feature debuted late last week will be refunded in full.

"We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing," Valve said in an announcement. "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. "

In the announcement, they outlined their goals for paid mods. They wanted to give modders the opportunity to make a steady income off their creations and perhaps work on them full-time. By allowing developers of the game to get a percentage of this revenue, Valve hoped that this would make studio more supportive of modding communities.

"We thought this would result in better mods for everyone, both free & paid. We wanted more great mods becoming great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZ, and Killing Floor, and we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to take a shot at it. But we underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop."

There was a strong backlash after paid mods made their debut. A petition demanding the feature's removal received over 130,000 signatures. The most popular mod right now for Skyrim adds a sign called "Free the mods" to the game. There were also countless angry forum posts, Reddit threads and tweets. The tidal wave of negative reactions no doubt paid some role in Valve's decision.

The arguments against paid mods were as numerous as the detractors. Some were worried that the feature would result in a flood of fake or broken mods. Others argued that Steam gave too much of modders' revenue to developers and Valve. Another concern was that paid mods would hurt the spirit of modding community.

As someone who's gotten countless hours of enjoyment from mods, I'd be happy to see the creators get money for their work. It pleases me when these mods become full games or their creators get recruited by studios. I wish that happened more often.

Still, there were some serious problems with Valve's execution. Like Garry Newman, I think giving Skyrim modders a mere 25% of the revenue from their creations wasn't fair. Post-launch support is a huge concern for me, too. If you buy a mod, you only have 24 hours to get a refund. If a later patch for the game breaks the mod and the mod's creator doesn't fix his creation, you're screwed. Valve's only suggestion for that scenario is to "post politely on the Workshop item's page and let the mod author know." This, coupled with the lack of an approval process for paid mods, mean that spending money on modders' creations was too much of a gamble.

Maybe Valve will find a way in time to reward modders for their effort that also protects buyers. In today's announcement, they say that they "believe there's a useful feature somewhere here." They're currently looking through the "dump truck of feedback" on paid mods and encourage any further feedback you want to share.