Bethesda will partner with modders to release new premium content for Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
Bethesda Games Studio is launching Creation Club, a service for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, this summer.
Bethesda's new Creation Club will contain a series of mods developed for Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition both by Bethesda and "outside developers," including those from the games' communities. These will include weapons, abilities and gameplay, according to Bethesda. A trailer above, from the publisher's E3 2017 press conference, shows a few of these in action.
[...] Yet the publisher also stated that Creation Club is not equivalent to "paid mods," similar to what it used to sell through Steam Workshop.
Bethesda will pay approved mod developers:
Creators are required to submit documentation pitches which go through an approval process. All content must be new and original. Once a concept is approved, a development schedule with Alpha, Beta and Release milestones is created. Creations go through our full development pipeline, which Creators participate in. Bethesda Game Studios developers work with Creators to iterate and polish their work along with full QA cycles. The content is fully localized, as well. This ensures compatibility with the original game, official add-ons and achievements. [...] Just like our own game developers, Creators are paid for their work and start receiving payment as soon as their proposal is accepted and through development milestones.
Also at PC Gamer, Kotaku, Gamespot, Gamasutra, and GamesRadar+.
Related Stories
Skyrim mod drama gets ugly with allegations of stolen code and misappropriated donations
One of the more useful [The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] mods, for developers but indirectly for players, is the Skyrim Script Extender, or SKSE. It basically allows for more complex behaviors for objects, locations and NPCs. How do you have a character seek shelter from the rain if there's no weather-based behaviors in their original AI? That sort of thing (though that's an invented example). SKSE goes back a long way and the creators provide much of the code for others to use under a free license, while declining donations themselves.
Another project is Skyrim Together (ST), a small team that since 2013 has (among others) been working on adding multiplayer functionality to the game — their Patreon account, in contrast, is pulling in more than $30,000 a month. The main dev there allegedly independently distributed a modified version of SKSE several years ago against the terms of the license, and was henceforth specifically banned from using SKSE code in the future.
Guess what SKSE's lead found in a bit of code inspection the other day?
Yes, unfortunately, it seems that SKSE code is in the ST app, not only in violation of the license as far as not giving credit, but in that the dev himself has been barred from using it, and furthermore that — although there is some debate here — the ST team is essentially charging for access to a "closed beta." Some say that it's just a donation they ask for, but requiring a donation is really indistinguishable from charging for something.
Response from Skyrim Together.
Related: Modder Fixes What Bethesda Couldn't -- Skyrim
Bethesda 'Creation Club' for Skyrim and Fallout 4: No "Paid Mods" Here!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday June 13 2017, @12:37PM (10 children)
So when you unwrap all the flowery PR phrases they're basically hiring contractors to produce non-corporate content.
Its not a bad idea; I played Skyrim a bit when it was new and its a touch repetitive. Like an hour in, OMG this is amazingly huge, and 20 hours in, OMG this is the most boring and repetitive thing I've ever played.
I have one foot in each world and paper -n- pencil gamemasters doing pathfinder or whatever are infinitely more creative than computer game designers.
Its a law of nature... you get a huge team of full time professionals and years later the most creative thing they can produce is "obtain five wolf skins" and then you look at paper and pencil RPGs and one massively underpaid dude over a couple weeks squirts out some amazing supplement or module or whatever that has more creativity in 64 pages published on demand at rpgnow than 100 computer games put together.
Maybe another way to look at it is you get a team of 100 painters and they can paint some iconic bridge, perhaps, but its artistically empty and soulless, whereas even a half way decent individual painter can produce something far more creative.
Certainly the worst contractor will produce better content than the best team.
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday June 13 2017, @12:58PM (3 children)
"I came to sly Alduin, the harbinger of the apocalypse, but ended being shopkeeper with a nice house and wife."
> 20 hours in, OMG this is the most boring and repetitive thing I've ever played
> obtain five wolf skins
Try mods. Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/wiki/beginners_guide [reddit.com] Even installing them won't be boring and repetitive.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday June 13 2017, @05:51PM (2 children)
That works for PC gamers. But the summary mentions "PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One", and the page you linked describes only how to install mods on Skyrim for Windows. Where does that leave people who bought a PlayStation 4 for gaming precisely because their PC doesn't run Windows?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 13 2017, @06:26PM (1 child)
Screwed
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 13 2017, @09:00PM
Come join the Master Race if you want to have some real fun.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 13 2017, @01:04PM (5 children)
Normally there would be a TES VI by now. Instead there's The Elder Scrolls: Online, which I recall being panned at release but has added Morrowind as an expansion this year.
Recall that TES Online's plot doesn't really matter that much because it's set in the past. Whereas the single player games moved the world's timeline forward (and in a pretty big way between Oblivion and Skyrim).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim [wikipedia.org]
So they reupped the graphics quality of Skyrim recently, and now are trying this new approach to adding content. These paid mods will be screened by them and will presumably be larger in scope than most free mods, while not breaking compatibility with existing stuff like Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn.
Instead of 4-6 years between Skyrim and TES VI, it could be more like 10 years.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday June 13 2017, @03:21PM (4 children)
Skyrim fanboi here. SSE is a hogwash and is absolutely abysmal in comparison to mods that were released years ago. Bethesda is only looking to milk more and more money out of a dead horse. I mean, they released SSE after 5 full years and they have fixed hardly any bugs. The graphics engine is shiiiiit and even the modders have moved on now. Even SKSE is not yet ported. And instead of bringing the old modders together, Bethesda now wants to milk whatever is left through this "enticement". I doubt it will work, because Skyrim's engine is so old, honing your skills on it doesn't translate to being a better graphics designer anymore.
I have played TES:Online. It is... kinda okay. But even a damn horse is DLC. Now I am the kind of guy who will still explore every nook and corner on foot without fast-travel, but I cannot anymore justify the amount of dedication it takes.
I don't mind if they don't release TES:VI for another, say, 2-3 years. Beyond that, I doubt a lot of fans will stick around. Especially most of the casual players have only played Skyrim.
I so hope it doesn't turn out into another HL3.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 13 2017, @04:16PM (3 children)
I imagine the issue they're having is Fallout 4.
It's clear that they've been trying to make the games more and more 'accessible' each iteration. While I think they might have overdone it a bit with Skyrim, it still was a relatively fair medium between core appeal and mainstream appeal. And mods really picked up most of the slack there. But then we get to Fallout 4. Bethesda proudly announced how many copies they shipped at launch and how much they made from that (12 million and 'over $750 million) but and haven't said much of anything about it since except in comments that implicitly go back to the shipped number. Looking at the steam player count [steampowered.com] it's continuing its steady decline and is just about to fall behind... Skyrim. Seriously, in a strange coincidence the games are currently neck and neck.
I believe that they probably went a bit too 'accessible' with Fallout 4 and, more importantly, I think they know it. Continuing to appeal to numbers shipped and launch while trying to stay ahead of a game they released 6 years ago in player count is definitely not the future they had in mind for Fallout 4. And I think there's every reason to speculate that the path they were taking for TES 6 was going to be the exact same sort of simplifying and streamlining systems. If this is the case, this might mean they could be looking at something close to a reboot of the work they'd done on TES VI. It also puts them in an awkward spot when all their success to date had been mostly just taking somewhat more esoteric systems and streamlining them with a new coat of paint and some incremental progress. TES VI can't just look like a nice Skyrim mod.
(Score: 1) by jshmlr on Tuesday June 13 2017, @06:35PM (1 child)
I'm spit-balling here, but I'd wager that there might not be a TES VI for some time. We'll see a revisit to Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion in the Skyrim flavor first, maybe through these contracted mods. The hard design work is already done for these games, and they are approaching the appropriate age for another round of nostalgic fans with some disposable income.
Need nothing, then see what happens.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 13 2017, @10:11PM
We might not need Bethesda's help to revisit Daggerfall:
http://xlengine.com/ [xlengine.com]
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(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:23AM
I think you have hit the nail on its head. With Fallout they have made two mistakes: one is that they incorrectly assumed that the reason behind Skyrim's longevity is its accessibility, when in reality it is because of immersion. Secondly, they have reimagined Fallout into a post-apocalyptic Skyrim, which it is not.
I just hope they hop onto Nexus, list mods by popularity and downloads and then try to make sense of what is it that Skyrim was missing. And I sure hope they continue to provide better and better support for modders. They are half the game :)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 13 2017, @01:25PM (7 children)
... leaves modders continuing to patch out bugs, many game breaking, years after the final patch was released by Bethesda.
Sounds here like they mostly are interested in outsourcing a never ending stream of DLC that will be produced for wages far below what they'd paid an accredited studio to produce. And the workers are completely independent contractors so there's none of those pesky employee rights to bother with. It's really opening the door for something like Witcher to replace them since I imagine the next step Bethesda will make is to try to prevent people from being able to mod the game unless they join some sort of a 'creators club.'
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 13 2017, @01:45PM (1 child)
I assume you are referring to these patches [uesp.net], linked from many UESP bug sections.
I never encountered many game breaking bugs and didn't use the unofficial patch(es), but have definitely needed to resort to the console or other arcane fixes sometimes.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 13 2017, @03:58PM
Yeah. Here [iguanadons.net] is a complete change log. And just as important is enboost [step-project.com] which makes the game vastly more stable. Add an ENB renderer + mods while you're at it and you start getting a Skyrim that looks like this [deviantart.net] as well.
(Score: 3, Funny) by coolgopher on Tuesday June 13 2017, @01:47PM (4 children)
Hey look, it's not an Elder Scrolls game if you don't find yourself falling through the floor of the world every so often! It's what they've always offered, though I believe they peaked with Daggerfall back in the day...
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday June 13 2017, @02:04PM
That cheapass Vivec with his magically disappearing cantons.
He blames it on us for wearing out the 'E' key training Acrobatics.
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(Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday June 13 2017, @10:26PM (2 children)
Didn't it launch with bugs that made it impossible to complete the game unless you installed a downloadable patch? And at a time when most people had no internet, or at best dialup. That's definitely peak Bethesda.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday June 14 2017, @01:23AM
I never finished Daggerfall, though I can from experience say that the original game, TES:Arena, was only possible to complete by alternating between the beta and the final version of the game as both had main quest-line blockers, just at different points.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:37AM
Not just Beth: it's the whole damn industry. It's the norm to release a broken product and patch it on day one.