I've just recently delved into the world of modding and I am astounded by the high quality of some of these mods. What's more astounding is the price tag: FREE. Maybe I simply do not understand how the gaming industry works as a business, but from my "man on the street" perspective, it seems that Bethesda is not fully capitalizing on the gold mine that is Skyrim. Even more than two years later, Skyrim is still one of the most played games on Steam. But yet, the game has only three paid DLCs?

What if Bethesda released small DLCs via Steam every month or so ranging from a 1 to 5 dollars each? These "official" mods could be anything from gameplay enhancements to quests. Although there are many talented independent modders out there, wouldn't officially sanctioned mods have that "brand appeal" and instill buyer confidence?

Well, since there are already so many fantastic mods out there for free, perhaps that ship already left the dock...

Their team isn't as large as other high budget developers. They chose to start focusing on a new project instead.

I don't really think they passed on any potential big bucks. Skyrim sold over 20 million copies, and I am sure the DLC is among that too so IMO Skyrim got all the profit that Bethesda needed. Besides, all the little things they planned to put in the game were mentioned in the Game Jam video, but why more was not put in is anyone's guess.

In a business there's really no such thing as earning "enough"

Moving onto new projects is a standard thing to do, for any creative team/person, but especially in a high-demand industry like video games.

But the idea with giving us the ability to create and use mods, is that now the game is ours. We continue the adventure that Bethesda started