Steam Removes Payment Feature in “Skyrim” Workshop

After Feedback, Steam Decides Feature Isn't Ready

By Bryan Smith on April 27, 2015 at 6:47pm

Shortly after Bethesda made a statement on why they are trying paid mods (which has updated to reflect Steam's decision), Steam has removed the payment feature from "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's" workshop.

We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree.

We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different.
Alden, from Steam

They also provided an explanation for the thought process behind the feature.

To help you understand why we thought this was a good idea, our main goals were to allow mod makers the opportunity to work on their mods full time if they wanted to, and to encourage developers to provide better support to their mod communities. We thought this would result in better mods for everyone, both free & paid. We wanted more great mods becoming great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZ, and Killing Floor, and we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to take a shot at it.

As of now, the payment feature looks like it will be put on hold for a while as Steam either figures out a better way to implement the idea or scrap it all together.