I am a professional programmer working for a world wide corporation.

If 15% is an industry standard, then there is a big problem in the industry.

I am all for paid mods, but I am also for fairness in the accounting. My mods typically have over 1 million downloads on the free Nexus. My last mod had 1400 hours of my time put into it. It just seems that 75% going other places is a bit on the high side.

With Valve (likely) out of the mix, I would imagine that Bethesda would offer paid modders better terms and a higher percentage.

I wish I could do something as big as Falskaar but that took 12 hours a day. I have a job now and live on my own and am an advlt, and that practically takes 12 hours a day. If I make something for Fallout 4 it will definitely be more along the lines of my earlier mods, like Project Genesis or Deimos. A short concise story a few hours long that takes place in a few explicit areas. That's actually within the realm of possibility for me I think.

I think the point to be made here is how much time and money did Bethesda put into establishing the game and community so that your mod could get those 1 million downloads in the first place? Not saying I explicitly agree with that %, but I'm kinda surprised people are so against giving the company that literally made any of this possible that much.

Since Bethesda have repeatedly and explicitly said there will be no paid mods for Fallout 4, this whole discussion seems rather moot, no?

I mean, they didn't say "No paid mods for Fallout 4 on PC" or "No paid mods for Fallout 4 for the foreseeable future".

And, frankly, having had the last round blow up so spectacularly in their faces, are they really so staggeringly stupid as to try and bring it back again and outright (and demonstrably) lie about it? I doubt it.

[edit]

Ok, maybe my memory's playing me false. I was sure there were several interviews around the Fallout 4 announcement where there were explicit 'no paid mods for Fallout 4' statements from Bethesda, but damned if I can find them. Just lots of 'no plans for paid mods'.

Still, I really don't expect to see this cropping up until their next game at the earliest.

@andyw
Hosting a server for free makes no sense either. Perhaps you can replace "paid" with "service fee".

Eh, Valve do it for Steam Workshop. Bethesda host these forums for 'free'.

Whether it's worth it to a company all comes down to how many extra game sales they think it'll get them, what it'll be worth in terms of advertising (if they can reduce their advertising budget to offset the server costs), how good it is at boosting brand loyalty and so sales of future games...

Just because there's a cost that will be passed down to their customers in some manner, that doesn't mean the cost has to be ring-fenced and passed directly to users of what is, essentially, a PR exercise.

But this is has gone completely off-topic, so I'll bow out of the discussion at this point. My apologies.

Todd never flat out said "no paid mods ever for Fallout 4". Just that they would be available for free, which isn't a lie if they allow people to continue uploading them to Nexus and/or putting them on Bethesda.net and charging nothing. It leaves the door wide open for them to put the choice into the authors' hands - just like it was before.

Don't want people to pay for the mod? Don't charge for it. It was a simple option that absolutely nobody HAD to engage. I see no reason this wouldn't be the plan for a new implementation.

Yes, I do tend to agree that they may feel they can offer a larger percentage without the middle man involved. On that we'll just have to wait and see.

As for Valve, they pay for the infrastructure on the Workshop via the cut they take from the sale of the games that publish there. It's not free. We're just not the ones being billed for it.

i dont care one way or the other...if its paid il get em when i can and if not il still get em........but i better drop out of this conversation as to not get banned.