Valve announced the introduction of paid mods to the Steam Workshop last week, and Gabe Newell followed up with a Reddit AMA over the weekend. But in a quick turn of events, Valve has removed the feature entirely.
Paid mods were only available for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and anyone who purchased mods for the game will receive a full refund. According to Valve, the company "talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree."
The post on Steam specifically details the decision to pull paid mod support from the service.
"We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing," it states. "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."
Valve had an optimistic view of paid mod support, but a lot of Steam users didn't share its vision. Now the company plans to look at email feedback in an effort to learn from the experience and likely implement it in a different way in the future.
