Valve Strongarms Devs On Paid Mods; Modders Only Get 25 % Revenue, Donation Pages Removed

Valve’s new mods policy was sure to court controversy, but with some recent actions it will be harder to defend their actions.

As Ars Technica has reported, the revenue split for the first batch of purchasable mods for Skyrim leaves only 25 % to the mod creators, with 75 % divided in undisclosed terms between Valve and Bethesda Game Studios. Modders can ask that some of that 75 % be donated to entities like Polycount or Blender, but that is the extent of it.

However, a fan has also observed that Valve is now removing donation page links on Workshop pages. Valve seems set to strongarm modders regarding this policy.

Valve is now also removing links to donation sites on workshop pages. "Give us 75% or get nothing at all". Just epic.

— Nik Narcotic (@nik_narcotic) April 24, 2015

To be fair, it is possible that this is not entirely Valve’s call, as many EULAs for Steam games would have restrictive rules regarding mods. Valve may merely be enforcing Bethesda’s rules under a new interpretation. Similarly, other devs with restrictive EULAs, such as Tripwire Interactive’s for Killing Floor 2, are likely to see similarly harsh enforcement.

This is not necessarily a completely bad thing, since it is meeting the developer’s wishes. Fans can hope that more devs choose to allow modders to do what they want with mods, and that Valve won’t be changing anything on those Workshop pages.

Admittedly, this is speculation on my end until we get more details, either directly from Valve, or as it plays out. Do you feel Valve is in the right with this policy? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.