Valve boss Gabe Newell says that people who create mods for video games should be able to make money for their work. Steam does not allow mode developers to directly sell their creations anymore. In April 2015, however, for a brief time developers were able to sell to the PC gaming platform’s millions of users. Bethesda and Valve worked together to introduce paid mods for the open world RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
When this came out, a number of players complained that they should not have to pay for mods. Players of the game have become accustomed to the idea that they could download a mod and install it by themselves. Bethesda and Valve eventually had to put a stop to the idea as the idea of creating a marketplace where people could sell those mods was too big of a change.
However, Newell still believes that people who create these mods should receive compensation for the creation of content that other people value. He said that mod people create a lot of value. He explained that by not compensating these mod developers who create value is a bug in the system.
Newell stated that he thinks that game mod developers have a positive impact on the gaming industry in a way that they help sales of games. However, when these mod developers get shortchanged by not getting compensated for their work, it affects the gaming economy as a whole. Other mod developers will think that developing mod is not worth spending their time.
Newell admitted that the Skyrim situation was a mess. He said that it was not the right place to launch paid mods. He stated however that the fundamental concept that the gaming community needs to reward people who are creating value is pretty important. Valve needs to figure out a way to compensate mod developers and customers would hop onto the idea. This will make game mod developers happy because they will be given a piece of reward for their effort, as reported by VentureBeat News.
Valve has not yet shared any concrete plans to introduce paid mods. However based on the statements released this week, it seems that it is very likely that they will soon retry the idea again. It was also announced that Valve will be removing Steam Greenlight and will be replaced by Steam Direct this coming spring, as published by GameSpot.
