A few minutes ago at Bethesda's E3 2017 press conference, the publisher announced a new paid mods initiative called the Creation Club. This is a way for players to purchase, download, and install mods and new game content for both Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, with a new in-game interface and new currency.
According to Bethesda:
"Creation Club content is made by Bethesda Game Studios and outside developers, including the very best community creators. These outside creators work hand-in-hand with Bethesda Game Studios, which means all content will be fully compatible with your savegames, achievements, and official add-ons."
This appears to be Bethesda's second attempt at creating a paid mods marketplace, after its original aborted attempt via Steam. The difference here is that, while the first paid mods initiative allowed all creators to put their mods on the marketplace, this Creation Club initiative is limited to modders hand-picked by Bethesda. Bethesda also sounds like it will be in control of content that appears on the Creation Club storefront.
Content for Creation Club is purchased with "Credits". There's no word on the real-world price equivalent for these Credits, or how much specific mods can be expected to cost, but some examples are included in the above trailer and screenshots.
Further details have been made available via press release from Bethesda, including an attempt to distance the Creation Club from the concept of paid mods as it was first known - despite the fact that Creation Club content consists of modders being paid for their work.
The press release follows:
What is the Creation Club?
Creation Club is a collection of all-new content for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim. It features new items, abilities, and gameplay created by Bethesda Games Studios and outside development partners including the best community creators. Creation Club content is fully curated and compatible with the main game and official add-ons.
What types of content will be included in Creation Club?
Creation Club will feature a wide variety of content including but not limited to:
- WEAPONS: New weapons, material skins, parts, etc.
- APPAREL: New outfits, armor, and items for your character.
- WORLD: New locations, decorations, foliage, etc.
- CHARACTERS: New abilities, characters, companions, etc.
- CREATURES: New enemies, mounts, pets, etc.
- GAMEPLAY: New types of gameplay like survival mode, etc.
How do I get Creation Club content?
Creation Club is available via in-game digital marketplaces in both Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition and purchased with Credits. Credits are available for purchase on PSN, Xbox Live, and Steam. Your Credits are transferable and can be used in both games on the same platform.
Can I become a Creator?
Whether you are a professional developer, artist, or modder; you can apply to be a Creator through our official website. Be ready to share work you’ve already done as part of your application.
If I’m accepted to be a Creator, what can I create and what is the dev process?
Creators are required to submit documentation pitches which go through an approval process. All content must be new and original. Once a concept is approved, a development schedule with Alpha, Beta and Release milestones is created. Creations go through our full development pipeline, which Creators participate in. Bethesda Game Studios developers work with Creators to iterate and polish their work along with full QA cycles. The content is fully localized, as well. This ensures compatibility with the original game, official add-ons and achievements.
Are Creators Paid For Their Work?
Yes. Just like our own game developers, Creators are paid for their work and start receiving payment as soon as their proposal is accepted and through development milestones.
Is Creation Club paid mods?
No. Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like. Also, we won’t allow any existing mods to be retrofitted into Creation Club, it must all be original content.
Most of the Creation Club content is created internally, some with external partners who have worked on our games, and some by external Creators. All the content is approved, curated, and taken through the full internal dev cycle; including localization, polishing, and testing. This also guarantees that all content works together.
We’ve looked at many ways to do “paid mods”, and the problems outweigh the benefits. We’ve encountered many of those issues before. But, there’s a constant demand from our fans to add more official high quality content to our games, and while we are able to create a lot of it, we think many in our community have the talent to work directly with us and create some amazing new things.
Creation Club is launching in Summer 2017 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Does this new initiative sound like it addresses some of the concerns of the first paid mods attempt, or will the same problems persist? Let us know your thoughts below.
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Website page for applying is here: https://creationclub.bethesda.net/en
What the hell, why bury this comment?
LOL, do you really need an explanation?
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Yes. Explain.
I wonder if you can get those "Credits" without having to buy them, because otherwise it is 100% paid mods.
How are they gonna handle the fact that these are going to be pirated? Its not like they can put a DRM on each mod (can they?)
When that whole paid mods shenanigans started on steam, we saw a bunch of mods that can be pirated (never though I would see the day that we have to pirate mods tbh)
Since these are mods, they could be easily extracted from their folders and just put out into the internet for free. Hell, the official DLCs for fallout 4 can be pirated easily and used on an official fallout 4 game since they work like mods.
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lol. Look at this guy who hasn't yet woken up to the implications of the FCC net regulations. One of those tiny side-effects is that (good or bad) piracy is going to be a thing of the past. Educate yourselves gamers. Politics affects us all.
lol. look at this who guy who hasn't yet figured out that internet piracy will never actually go away.
He's the same guy that believes that DRM works and no pirate ever found a way around DRM
FCC doesn't control the internet, only Americans' access to it. And a lot of recent regulations are being rolled back, not sure which one you're referring to specifically.
at one point, cool i can get som monies...
at another point, i need to pay for mods? really?
It's going to have strange effects on the dynamics of the modding community to commercialise mods.
This is not a healthy direction for the ecosystem to be heading in...
Ugh.
I got a Bad Feeling about this. This shouldn't be called "mods" it should be called MINI-DLC.
Did i have to remind you the horse armor DLC?! this are more than just "mini-dlc" man
Bethesda never actually calls these mods. They say "modders" can apply (in addition to artists and devs), but in their show conference and press release they refer to everything as "Creation Club content." I think they're trying to make a distinction between these and regular mods. Basically "mini-DLC."
It's like mini-DLC.. except the publisher doesn't have to pay anyone to make their DLC.
It should be called robbery. Bethesda does not deserve the money of modders.
Here we go again but this time is going to be forced into our games wether we like it or not. I thought Bethesda learnt how we feel about this sort of ****. Guess we will have to shove it down their throats again...
Well, just wondering when Bethesda guys figure it out that we want Obsidian to make a proper Fallout 4 spin-off... and that we prefer big expansion packs (those actually worth the money and trouble) to micro-DLC. (Nobody minds micro-mods/add-ons when they are free.)
This is such a odd article.
They say its not payed mods, but then they describe exactly that, payed mods!
Also do i wonder, how much the modder does get payed. I believe last time it was 60-40% (60% for Bethesda!!!!).
All in all i really get the feeling that Bethesda just want to get money for free. Ok, they will test the stuff and so, but, the main work is done by the modders.
Also does it say;
"Creators are paid for their work and start receiving payment as soon as their proposal is accepted and through development milestones."
Does this mean they get a fixed amount? So even when there mod is hardly ever downloaded they get payed? Which is great ofcourse, but the downside to it is that when it is a realy successfull mod, will they get payed more? I assume not. So i think that what the modder does get payed will not be that much at all.
As a modder for 16 years myself i have to say that i am not a big fan of were this is going to. The end winner is Bethesda in this way, but that is ofcourse from the start Bethesda's reasening.
Leon
Wasn't there also a percentage going to valve too cause of the workshop on steam? If all of the money was going to the mod creator (which it's more then likely not) it essentially just be like donations. And I have a feeling, unless like you stated if Bethesda pays them whether its a fixed amount or based on how their mod does, the'll earn the same maybe less then a mod creator would earn through donations.
I think it means they'll offer the modder the absolute minimum amount of the profits they possibly can, for what is almost certainly quite a lot more value of actual work.
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I'm fine with that, if it allows talented modders to get moneys while providing quality insurance to the final user. I really hope it's not a evil scheme à la Uber to cheaply outsource skilled labour.
Sadly that's exactly what it is.
They say that content is also gonna be made in-house so I think it's moreso a way to get long-term small-scale DLC for current and future games, whether its made at Bethesda or by other devs or modders.
"I really hope it's not a evil scheme à la Uber to cheaply outsource skilled labour."
It would feel a hell of a lot less like this if Bethesda allowed modders to use things like Patreon to accept donations.
This is probably very similar or same system as in Wildcard Studios case ( ARK : Survival Evolved ) where devs hand-pick the modders and pay the most skilled ones per month , with possibility to drop out anytime if quality requirements arent met . What I definetly dont like - Bethesda will probably take a too large cut of profits from this ( like always ) , and anything above 5 % for them is undeserved . At least 95 % of all money should go directly to modders - this wont happen , Bethesda will profit more , and pay modders less . In other words , Bethesda gets many various "DLCs" that are much less expensive for them . I dont like the general idea of paid mods , overall ... as it seems there is always not-so-hidden greed present with big companies .
"Your favourite worlds JUST got a little bigger"
Yeah... JUST... Like they just invented mods now... No, actually it's more like:
"Now you will have to pay for your favourite world to get a little bigger"
"Our favourite bank accounts JUST got a little bigger"
well ,only the muppets will be paying.
i would never ever pay for a mod or whatever they're calling them.
The idea of outsourcing for what's basically micro-DLC isn't new, (Workshop submissions, UT4 items, ARK, etc.), but it might affect the user base and leave hobbyist teams without some important members once they've left.
This could, in turn, lead to a lot more abandoned projects and less ambition/creativity overall.
While Bethesda has the ability to moderate all the poorly made crap, stolen assets and so forth, it could just lock off some of the great content and authors behind a paywall. Only Bethesda has the final say on who gets to join the club and what's released, and that's before we've even got into issues with consumer law.
What happens if someone isn't happy with a mod they've purchased or wish to return the credits they've added to their account? If a broken, unstable or incompatible mod gets released, will Bethesda seriously waste their time compensating people or dealing with complaints?
It's unlikely that there's going to be a whole QA/development pipeline for each successful submission.. BGS should be spending their time developing games rather than organising cosmetics or doing tech support for broken mods/consoles.
We're all here because making and/or playing mods is something we enjoy, and while there's certainly an incentive for people to make some great things and get involved, this honestly seems like it will just create more problems.
If more than one person is working on a paid mod, who gets to divide up the money? Won't this just create issues among teams who are working for payment? What amount of time or effort reflects a certain price? Is a weapon worth the same as an entire quest mod? More importantly, what's the cut to Bethesda and the modder?
There will always be great, free mods made by people who genuinely enjoy what they're doing and want to help maintain a classic. Just like DOOM, Morrowind, Jedi Knight and many others before it, Skyrim will have a great community for years to come.
This is still just speculation though, so we'll see what happens.
(Apologies for the wall of text.. I've just been thinking about it since the announcement.)
The Creation Club will allow Bethesda to circumvent Sony's rule against external assets and potentially open up the community for consoles. The problem is that people will still have to pay for it and don't have any other options for accessing mods; locking off great content behind a paywall and treating a good portion of their audience with contempt.
Honestly, I don't think this will affect PC if it does go ahead, as we're already using the Nexus, ModDB or dedicated forums. Sites that are entirely free with optional donations. (Who even uses Beth.net anyway?)
Considering the incredible backlash over the past 24 hours, it's pretty clear that the community won't accept Bethesda's sneaky PR. This must be the only time a game has been milked and re-released this much for this long. How disappointing.
Soon they'll just stop making games by themself.
Are we talking about valve?
> impying Valve makes games
Valve: We used to make games, now we make money.
Outsourcing dlc. What a wonderful idea!
They didn't learn the first time around, to hell with them.
Not exactly sure how this will play out but this could severely impact the quality of free mods. How many people will move to charging for their mods? If all we're left with is the dregs of awful content, it's sure to impact sales of their games seeing as mods are what made them better/popular/less buggy.
Can't wait to buy a 4.99$ crab reskin for a 6 year old game, oh hell yea.
Is this paid mods?
No.
But you have to pay for them?
Yes.
R.I.P Logic 2017-2017
"**** your logic, give me your money!" - Bethesda 2017
I wnonder what the modders think about this **** ?
So in real terms, if they are realistic about this at all. They are going to have to have a NSFW area.
Hahahah. This is the reason why skyrim is popular haha.
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This is really cool, I feel happy they're still trying this. This time they've definitely got a solid system going in regards to quality and compatibility of the mods.
I'm a bit confused at the new "currency" thing. I'm also confused how will be Gamemode type mods be implemented into skyrim or fallout, but overall this is a very positive initiative.
Given that fallout nor skyrim never intended for this type of modding framework in their core designs, this is certainly the best possible way to approach it, albeit a bit safe, rigid and sterile overall.
In any case, a good step in the right direction, in my opinion.
said the troll.
******* get cancer Bethesda
They've got some real nerve trying to pull this **** again.
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I'm ok with it as long as there realy good mods. has to be something worth paying for like a large quest mod or a new lands not. but knowing how people took payed mods on steam (from both sides) i have a bad feeling that this is gonna end up just like before. also dont let people pick there price make it based off of how good it is/how much you get. also Bethesda ether needs to give at lest 90% to the mod devs or give it to charities or the community like moddb and nexus.