On Steam Workshop changes - Update

Keeping old shit below. But if anyone cares still: www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/2…

So this has been the talk of the nerd world. So I figured I'd offer my nerd two cents.

I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. Really, it's only a trial run right now. And remember: Valve's paying the modder's royalty fees for them. Bethesda has to protect their own IP too, and playing around with where the money will end up doesn't really leave Volvo with much profit in the end.

If modders are make twenty-five cents on the dollar that leaves seventy-five cents to be divided between Valve and Bethesda. If split evenly this is something like 37 cents per purchase for each. Now the money passes into their hands; what happens? They pay book-keeping, they pay taxes. In Valve's case they pay to handle the server costs, perhaps even advertisement or distribution costs for handling how the mods are sent out at a cost.

What does the modder do with the quarter he receives? Just pays taxes. Depending on state, province, or country the tax rate may differ but in the end he's not playing for a book keeper to put it in the quarterly reports. He doesn't really need to pay attention to it as it goes to their bank or paypal. Now if he was in a team then the quarter would still need to be divided up, but that's something else.

This will be a very interesting trial run to see play out. And before anyone complains, dear Volvo isn't planning on removing free mods all together. In their FAQs they recognize the free mods exist and will exist. So if you plan on charging someone to download your mod you'll need to take into account the free ones and whether or not they accomplish the same thing as your mod does. So at this point natural market forces determine what happens and whether or not a mod will sink or swim.

It's not the end of the world kiddies. Time to actually start reading shit and not just the headlines.

tl;dr - Volvo and Beth still have to pay out to maintain their cut of a dollar leaving them with a smaller end-profit and modders get a larger end-share (if working solo). Likewise, they can choose to charge people for their mod or not based on ethics or some perception on how their content will fair in the market versus current market trends at the time.

My personal standpoint in the end - They have a choice on if they want a financial reward or not on their personal views and they are free to act on this as they will as Valve gave them the field to do so and nothing will be taken from them or the consumer for not partaking in financial transactions.