Valve removes paid mods from Skyrim

Valve was at the center of a great controversy last week when they added the idea of paid mods for Skyrim, with the idea set to spread to other games in the future. The concept was largely panned by consumers and now Valve has done an about-face.

"We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop," said Valve's Alden Kroll on the Steam Workshop page. "For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree. 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."

Kroll added that the intent was to allow mod makers to focus on their work full-time, while also encouraging further mod support to gaming communities. The idea largely fell flat, with Kotaku even pointing to Gabe Newell's attempts on Reddit to address the situation, which were met with a highly negative reception. Our own Steven Wong also voiced his own concerns, calling for the idea to be halted, lest the PC modding community turn mainly into a for-profit enterprise. Not helping matters was the fact that users were abusing the system by outright stealing content and putting them up for sale. Where Valve goes from here remains to be seen.

Valve removes paid mods from Skyrim