Bethesda Game Studios recently found itself in hot water again concerning Starfield. With the recent launch of the ‘Creations’ platform on Starfield came a slew of paid-for mods, with BSG stuffing some content behind paywalls locked down tight with ‘Starfield Creation Credits’ requirements blocking the way forward.
One particularly troublesome mod was the Trackers Alliance mission called ‘The Vulture’, which was put behind a paywall costing 700 Creation Credits (around $7). It’s the second part of a line of missions, and the biggest concern here is that the first part was free to consume. However, in a recent interview, Bethesda’s Todd Howard revealed that the firm is aware of the feedback and is preparing to adjust how they deliver similar content in future.
Do Better
Almost ten years ago, Bethesda Game Studios tried locking some Skyrim mods behind a paywall – and that went down like a cup of cold sick. It seems that history has been doomed to repeat itself because, unlike Tony Stark, Bethesda doesn’t learn from its mistakes. In a recent interview with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, Todd Howard confirmed that BSG ‘hears that feedback’ and is going to ‘take a look at that and how we deliver content like that’ further down the line.
The addition of these paid mods caused hundreds of users to pour onto Steam to review-bomb Starfield, which took a nosedive in ratings as the controversy unfolded. Despite Howard appearing in the interview to defend the price point and stressing that there’s a substantial amount of content wrapped up in it, users were still (understandably) vexed by the decision.
Howard said:
We need to evaluate both pricing, what we put out for free, how we communicate what’s in something, and really hear from the community there.
In other news, Starfield fans were left disappointed following the recent Xbox Games Showcase when Shattered Space received a new trailer but still didn’t get a release date. This is the highly anticipated first major expansion for Starfield, but despite being revealed long before the game was released in September 2023, it still doesn’t have a launch date.
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Bethesda REALLY wants paid mods to be a thing and will always keep pushing it. I think I just can’t believe that they are rolling this out with Starfield when it’s in a bad state. At least the other games were beloved and you could understand, in a way, their incentive to make them paid. Honestly, who’s going to bother paying for Starfield mods when it’s just so…bland.
I’ve been a Bethesda gamer since 1994 with Arena. But, I will never go near one of their products ever again.
Tawd Androol Coward and Butthesda can’t do better. It’s hard now to tell who’s the worst between Butthesda and Blizzard. Neither studio cares about their customers. Butthesda in particular. Skyrim came out 2011 and Fallout 4 in 2015. Skyrim has already suffered Mod loss and paywall. Fallout 4 suffered mod loss after modders made improvements yo the game. The only thing Butthesda cares about is ESO. Mainly because enough people duped into paying for every bundle, dlc and homes/camps is their way of life. The only thing they managed was Fallout 76, which was a dumpster fire release and 2 years before extra content. Creating seasons to be bought out and the only way to get unlimited ammo or junk way a payment for Fallout 1st. This was after content that could be completed in 30 minutes to 2 hours of gameplay and that’s being generous. The o ly way Butthesda will change is to fire the CEO and the Board members and get real gamers in there to help create. I don’t know why everyone keeps a blind eye to this and how people still eat up Butthesda games like Vallium.