https://beta-community.bethesda.net/topic/510/crowd-funding-monetization-of-mods on bethesda.net is interesting in the light of the "paid mods" fiasco.
This appears to go even further in the opposite direction than I thought possible, and perhaps even prohibits the "donate" button at the Nexus.
It does make me wonder if that whole thing was Valve's idea, and had nothing to do with Bethesda/Zenimax, and if it heralds a move away from Steam entirely?
My gosh. Such a mess....
Modders should be able to ask for donations, at least, for all the work they do. My guess is you are right, and this has nothing to do with Beth & Zenimax.
As much as I would love to see Bethesda divorce itself from Steam, I suspect it is more simply a matter of Bethesda trying to do some belated damage control after all the backlash from their paid mods attempt. I would not lay the latter all upon Steam's feet either. Valve did not hold a gun to Todd Howard's head and make him an offer he could not refuse. Both companies saw a way to make money for literally no work on their part. Now that paid mods sleep with the fishes, I am sure Bethesda wants to distance itself as much as possible from the whole thing.
Well one thing I've noticed since putting the PC version of Orc Hearthfires on the Nexus and the Xbox one on Bethesda.net is the difference in downloads. 1500 for Xbox versus 171 for PC. Now some of that is because PC users have it for OE (5700 of them) but at this rate the console users will catch up very soon.
I'm sure that has a lot to do with the way mods are now offered in-game in SE, as a choice on the main menu. Add some mods, before you start up again!
Edit: As of 10/4/2017 downloads were 8,469 for Original Edition, 2,633 for Special Edition, and 20,870 on Xbox1.
It's hard to tell if Creation Club will start to affect anything, but I'll be monitoring.
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