Games

Bethesda attacked by angry gamers for Creation Club, its new paid mods system

June 12, 2017
Michelle Topham

Bethesda attacked by angry gamers for Creation Club, its new paid mods system

Somebody at Bethesda thought it would be a good idea to create something called ‘Creation Club’, a new paid mod system the likes of which gamers already said a resounding “No” to last year, and then try to sell it to players of Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition as a “good thing”.

They are even trying to disguise the fact that it’s a paid mods system but, if you read the FAQ for the club, it most definitely is.



Creation Club was announced during Bethesda’s truly terrible E3 press conference yesterday, with the usual trumpet fanfare that often covers a garbage idea. The video about Creation Club then went up on Bethesda’s YouTube account with the description:

“Your favorite worlds just got a little bit bigger. 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.”

Gamers, of course, are not remotely fooled and, as of this writing, Bethesda’s Creation Club has 620 gullible souls liking the idea, and 5,154 angry gamers telling Bethesda “It’s a paid mods system, feck off”.

Of course, gullible gamers are posting this description from Bethesda’s FAQ:

“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”.

People that seem to have a little bit more of a clue about how Bethesda is trying to fool them, however, are responding with another part of Bethesda’s FAQ:

“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.”

And then asking, “If you have to buy credits to get access to Creation Club content, then how is it not a paid mods system. Of course, it is”.

And honestly, it looks to me just like another way Bethesda is trying to kick off another money grab. Talking about how they are ‘curating’ new content, including mods, and paying mod creators for their work. In reality, though, they are more than likely taking a sizable cut, leaving the mod creators making mods, but Bethesda taking the lion’s share of the loot.

After all, remember this revenue split from Bethesda’s last foray into paid mods with Valve?: “Bethesda has now confirmed the revenue sharing setup: Valve gets a 30 percent, Bethesda gets 45 percent, and modders get the remaining 25 percent.”

Same old story, Bethesda, of ripping off the people that actually create the content, and one that’s getting a little old.

Check out the E3 trailer for Creation Club below.

For me, though, it’s something I’ll be avoiding like I did the last paid mods system they tried to implement. After all, I hate to be treated like I’m stupid, and I detest companies that try to rip off the people who are actually creating the content for the games I play.

Michelle Topham
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