Steam Workshop starts direct sale mods and in-game items – update

Mods can now be sold in the Steam Workshop without the involvement of Valve or the developer of the game for which the mod is intended. The first game to use an open market is Skyrim.

That writes Valve Friday on the Steam website. It is no coincidence that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the first game where mods can be sold via the Steam Workshop. Bethesda’s game has an active mod community. To ensure that mod sales run smoothly, Bethesda has updated the Skyrim Creation Kit. As a result, mods can be divided into more categories and there is no longer any restriction on the file size.

Trying a mod remains free. Moreover; if after purchase it appears that a mod does not work properly, it is possible to get the payment back within 24 hours after purchase. Modmakers can determine a price themselves, although a target price is set. Valve tries to encourage collaboration; there is an option to add multiple contributors.

At the time of writing, Skyrim is the only game where the open-market principle is applied. It was already possible to vote for items created by the community in certain games, such as Team Fortress 2. These items or dlc must first be approved by the developer. The goal is to expand the open market in the coming weeks. It is up to game developers to determine whether they want to apply this model.

Update, 15:05: Developers or publishers appear to decide for themselves whether they want to receive a share of the mod’s revenue, according to an update to the Steam user agreement. For example, with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda has determined that modmakers can only keep 25% of the proceeds. Valve also requires mods to be shown for some time without an option to buy. With this, Valve tries to prevent the copying of mods. This gives the community some time to expose copycats before they make money from their stolen goods, Valve’s spokesperson Doug Lombardi said in an interview with PC Gamer.