EXTRA CREDIT

Some say that not a penny should be given to modders as payment; others assert that every penny spent on a mod belongs to its creator. Under Steam’s short-lived system for

mods, Valve took its standard 30 per cent cut and the remaining cash went to Bethesda to divvy up. It took 45 per cent for itself, explaining that in a normal commercial deal, licensing the IP and the tools to work with it would leave the developer with far less than a quarter share. To a community not previously exposed to commercial reality, the numbers felt wrong, and though Bethesda avoided much of this round of public displeasure, the spotlight might shift if Valve makes a stronger second attempt.

Valve has long made money off of mods for its own software, but monetising Skyrim mods felt to many like it had overstepped the mark. It has a lot of thorny issues to address before it can make a second attempt