Bethesda Ensures That ‘Fallout 4’ Won’t Support Paid Mods Of Any Kind

After killing their plans to institute a system for monetized mods earlier this year, which would allow content creators to sale their custom-made mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda had mentioned that they were still interested in the concept of paid mods, but wouldn’t be revisiting the idea anytime in the near future. Fortunately for those against the practice of paid mods, the developer has already confirmed that they don’t intend to implement the selling of mods with Fallout 4.

Before public outcry drove Bethesda to quickly remove Skyrim‘s monetization of mods from the Steam storefront, the developer had hoped to give creators an outlet to be compensated for their work by offering their content up for sale. The plan was to split the profit three ways between Bethesda, Valve, and the author of the mod themselves.

Following their previous claims that they won’t be officially bringing paid mods back with the release of Fallout 4, it now looks like Bethesda is fully taking the steps to prevent anyone from legally being able to monetize their Fallout 4 creations on their own as well. After reading the End User Licensing Agreement for Fallout 4, which is now available on the title’s Steam store page, one Neogaf user discovered a passage in the licensor contract that specifically deal with customized game materials.

In order to use the official modding tools for Fallout 4 once they are released next year, gamers agree that anything they build must be exclusively offered for free. The user agreement included language that strictly prohibits creators from being able to profit off their mods in any way whatsoever.

“You will not use or permit third parties to use the Software Utilities and the Customized Game Materials created by you for any commercial purposes, including but not limited to distributing, leasing, licensing, renting, selling, or otherwise exploiting, transferring or assigning the ownership of such Customized Game Materials. Customized Game Materials must be distributed solely for free.”

Furthermore, the use of Fallout 4‘s creation kit will also be contingent on the fact that they author of any game mod must recognize that Bethesda will retain the rights to all content built for the game and can therefore use the files for whatever purpose they want. This gives the developer rights to redistribute any Fallout 4 mode or use the features therein for marketing.

So, even if Bethesda eventually comes back to their plan to allow content creators to sell their work, it is now becoming clear that users won’t have to worry about paid mods appearing for Fallout 4. However, fans won’t even start seeing community-built mods become available for Fallout 4 until early 2016, when Bethesda plans to launch the game’s official creation kit.

While it will only be possible to create Fallout 4 mods using the PC version of the game, console fans will finally be able to enjoy mods for the game this time around. For the first time in any Bethesda title, players will be able to download and play with mods for Fallout 4 across all platforms. As was previously explained by the Inquisitr, the developer plans to deliver modded content to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC editions of Fallout 4 through their own BethesdaNet servers. Bethesda gave no comment when asked if Fallout 4 mods would also still be available through the Steam Workshop or other popular networks.

How do you feel about the topic of paid mods? Do you agree with the idea that content creators should be able to get paid for their work or are you happy that Fallout 4 mods will continue to be available for free?

[Image via Fallout 4]