4 days ago: “Paid mods on Steam are such a great topic to talk about, let’s do some interviews with the modders who made the first batch.”
2 days ago: “Ok, let’s write a short introduction to the interview” (7 hours pass) “Shit, this is already too long for most people. Guess I make the interview a separate thing once I’ve gotten some sleep”
1 day ago: “Ok, let’s do the podcast.” (3 hours later) “Time for a break. GTA with Trisha sounds good.” (couple more hours later) “oh, right…made a promise to someone. I’ll do it once I’m back.”
Today: Puh, finally home. Let’s see what happened in the world of gam…..fuck”
But I won’t keep them from you, so here they are.
The first one is with Corvalho, who worked on the Gifts of Akatosh mod. Interview numero dos: Sebastian, who was part of the team that was working on “Shadow Scale set”
Dr. Strangethumb: What was the feedback you got from the modding community so far? We know that there are some very vocal people who aren't happy, but any positives? And what do your fellow modders think about this step?
Corvalho: There were very few people who understand the side of the modders, such as the amount of effort and time we put into every piece. By what I could talk with other modders, they're mostly undecided whether it's worth to go through this kind of hate. I wonder if the community will ever get used to this kind of practice and support modders in this sense.
Dr. S: It is a big change and things are still very uncertain. I think that many people fear that mods will now become the next evolution of the "horse armor". Do you personally have any concerns about this step from Valve?
Corvalho: Not really concerns, but there's something I consider kind of a "low blow" form Valve: taking 75% of the revenue of the submitted mods, leaving 25% to be split amongst the contributors, which usually are more than one person. The price is likely lower than average DLC's on steam, 3-5 bucks depending on the mod, so this whole system seems to benefit Valve way more than any other part involved. To the point it's unfair to the modders themselves.
Dr. S: Yeah, I was wondering about that. From what I understand, Valve invited some people to produce the first batch of „premium mods“. You were even able to use some of their IPs.
Is there any other support you get from Valve and/or Bethesda? Will modders who now intend on making premium mods get the same love?
Also, do you know how much Bethesda is getting out of those 75% Valve keeps?
Corvalho: No, not really support. There were discussions during the dev process on what features should be implemented in the workshop in order to make the experience of selling mods easier. By what I understand, this first batch was rather an experiment (for both Valve and modders imo), but they do intend to keep approving mods to be sold. As for how they split the income, no I don't have a clue. What I do know is that there's also a split that goes to service providers such as modding communities and framework creators.
Dr. S: Was there any resistance voiced against the 75% cut? If so, how did Valve respond?
Corvalho: None that I have seen (although I got to admit I was not the most participative member in the group of discussion), tbh I was unaware of their cut until I finished my mod and proceeded to re-read the agreement.
Dr. S: ouch, that must have sucked. Did they hide it, or were you just not that concerned about it?
Corvalho: No the agreement is available to be read. It seems to be the way they split their income by default in the workshop. I worked with the TF2 workshop for a while and that's the same cut they take.
Dr. S: Mods sometimes break, be it an incompatibility with another mod, or an official patch. Valve only guarantees a 24h refund. I’m expecting quite a few angry customers in the future. You only get ¼ of the income, yet you have to do all the work AND support it for the months/years to come. Does this put you under a lot of pressure?
Corvalho: As Skyrim hasn't been patched in years now, that's not really something I worry about, but in the case of other games, yeah that's something to be considered.
Dr. S: Back to the downsides for the consumer. Do you fear the possibility that some companies now start relying more on the work of modders, releasing games that are unfinished/missing features? Modders would now get an extra incentive to work on them and the publishers would still make a profit from it.
Corvalho: Hm. I don't think any decent studio would ever consider relying on modders for that.
Although having a game to be mod friendly is already a feature most games lack, so perhaps it could be the other way around.
Dr. S: Good point. Maybe we see a mod renaissance in AAA game. Anything else you would like to share on this topic?
Corvalho: Hmm... Not really. There's not much more I could say other than that I would like to see the community working along with Valve to make this whole new feature better for all.
Dr. S: Fair enough. I personally hope that this will lead to some great mods and if the first batch is any indication, it's looking good. So tell us a bit about your contribution to it, Gifts of Akatosh.
Corvalho: It's basically a full set of one handed weapons, a shield and an armor, including also custom crafting materials for all of the pieces.
Dr. S: you need to work on your salesmanship :D
Corvalho: heh, yeah I'm not good at it
Dr. S: Ok. A big thank you from me! Enjoy your day ;)
Corvalho: Take care mate
Dr. Strangethumb@Twinstiq.com: Gabe told on Reddit that the mods made $10.000 so far. Are you happy with the money yours made until now? And if you can and want to share it: How many copies did you sell until now?
Sebastian: The number of sales - the number of subscribers to the mod is 1749
Sebastian: My mod is worth $1.49 I do not think it has a lot to offer. I was invited to create a pay-mod because of my work on the Dota 2 workshop
Sebastian: And Dota 2 items bring a lot more.
Dr. S: Ok, so that’s somewhere around 600€. Happy with that number? Sounds pretty good already, but I don't know how much work went into it
Sebastian: I'm not the only one doing this mod, and we share their 25% for three.
Sebastian: About 25 days
Sebastian: And we are still finalizing it. There will soon be a major update that fixes a lot of bugs.
Dr. S: Thanks for the info! Anything special you would like to share with our readers on the topic of paid mods?
Sebastian: Yes, I think paid mods - is a severe but logical step of game development.
Sebastian: I know that many modders have long been waiting for this, it will attract a lot of professionals in this work
Sebastian: That will improve the quality of mods in general, and possibly have a major impact on the process of game development in general. Look at UE4 for example.
Sebastian: All these movements in one direction
Dr. S: There are many positives this could bring to everyone in the chain (Developers, Modders, Gamers), but is there anything you fear? Any negative developments this could provoke? (Besides the outrage)
Sebastian: I think the worst thing would be attempts to steal someone else's content. And it’s a bad idea to do a paid mod that used to be free before. I think such a situation will occur.
Sebastian: But free mods for fun still remain
Dr. S: I know that the owner of Nexus Mods voiced some concern about the possibility that publishers could prevent free mods. Do you think publishers would actually do that?
Sebastian: Mods maintain playability of a game, paid or free. I do not see any reason to prevent their appearance. It would be stupid of publisher to do this.
Sebastian: But publishers destroy entire games and franchises for the money all the time.
Dr. S: Thanks for the answers! Should i ever get back into skyrim, i will surely look at your mod! Want to advertise it to our readers?
Sebastian: Thank you for your support :) I advise readers to look at the store page in a few days when we added all that is planned.
