Here is a better question, why shouldn't they? Stop pretending this is something new, it's been going on for a while with Valve titles like TF2 and CS and nobody gave a damn there either and bought plenty of mods (to the tune of 200+ million).

It's also amazing how some people instantly react and don't read anything because 'STEAM BAD'. Modders have the choice to not charge anything and they have the choice to just set a donation. They also have the choice to allocate some of the 75% (valve's cut) somewhere else, like Nexus. They also have the choice to not make a set price and let the buyer choose what to pay. Third, if a modder truly wants his mod for free and doesn't want to deal with the workshop (hint: many already don't put their mods on Steam), they can use Nexus or ModDB or any other place that hosts mods.

"Steam sells mods": HAHAHAHA BEST JOKE EVER!

I can now imagine the wall of mods torrented in darkest places.

Paying for mods which have few or none QA, except very popular ones? How to defend that, seriously?
Gift I would be ok (especially if the whole amount goes to modders), but a store?

Youtube videos monetization, anyone?


EDIT: As I said many times for many years, NEVER GET COMMUNITY MODS IN A VIDEO GAME STORE. People wanted Steam Workshop? They have now what they deserve.

Nothing new, you obviously never played a valve title. People buy skins all the time from the community.

I am absolutely disgusted by this, and that was before I knew about the ridiculous cut that Valve and the publisher take.

I'd rather PAY to host my own mod free than give those greedy cunts even a 1% cut.

Ho, I know, I have heard about TF2 a lot more than I would like.
I predicted what happened today, it only amuses me that others who didn't want to imagine that before being angry now.

It's pretty common for TB to be lacking on some of the information. That 75% is based on the fact that the page for modders state they get 25%. So in other words, they do *not* get 75%.

However, from some guy who made a fish mod for Skyrim or something it seems Valve gets 30% of that and the publisher 45%.

I love the paid shills in this thread defending this.

I only ever really used steam for chat anyway, and stopped that once they started censoring it. Only thing that sucks about this is that I may be using fewer mods now.

I actually imagined that Bethesda may do a paid mods system on their own, as far back as when i was heavily modding Morrowind. They probably wanted to, but only now the industry is in the sorry state where it'll be deemed acceptable.

Not being surprised doesn't lessen my disgust or anger.

Well,
there are two things in my opinion :
- First, people have a mean to sell their work which is good. I am sure many will still be free.
- BUT, it's yet another good opportunity for scumbags to scam people and/or flood the whole place with rippoffs and things, and I really don't expect Steam to keep things in order.

Personally i don't think its bad that some modders want to get rewarded for their work in one way or another but this solution is just bad in every way.

If anything they should have added donation buttons for people who want to give some Steam wallet to modders as reward.

But here modders only get a small cut of that money and this also only in Steam fake currency - Which means at the end Valve gets all of the money back and this whole thing only exists so people put more real money into the Steam drain.

Edit: I see that the money goes to your bank account after all. Still - The cut seems rather unfair..

If it's anything like the other content that's sold through Steam they do have a way of cashing out, once they reach a minimum amount.

Edit: Actually, the whole section on banking in the payments section pretty much confirms it's not Steam wallet at all. You can't even sell a mod without supplying bank information. The Steam wallet confusion is probably because Refunds for mod are only returned in Steam wallet currency.

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoppaymentinfofaq/

Q. Can I submit my items in Steam Workshop before I provide valid bank information?
A. No. You will not be able to finalize revenue splits on items in Steam Workshop prior to providing us with valid contact, banking and tax information.

Q. Do you pay in currencies other than US dollars?
A. We pay in US dollars only. If your bank account is held in any other currency, the conversion to your local currency will be done by your bank when receiving the payment. Please check with your bank to ensure that they can receive USD – some banks will not accept USD. If your bank does not accept USD, you will need to provide banking information for a bank which will accept USD in order to receive payment.

Q. Is there a monthly cut-off for bank account changes?
A. Please note that we make payments by the 30th of the month and there is lead time to prepping the payments. In order to ensure your banking changes are accepted in the system in time for payments, please complete any bank changes by the 20th of the month.

Very good point.

the problem is that the skyrim modding community is already many years old. Many people have given consent to use of their work in other mods. Tools have been shared. Ideas have been shared. But until now all that happend under the assumption that this was all a common hobby. No money involved.
Now you already the have discussions starting:
- this mod costs now costs 5$, shouldn't mod xy also get a share of that? And what about the tool abc which is used in this mod? and then there this SexyBikiniModel from some ForumUser who is no longer active? Are they allowed to sell that?
- people are already changing their mod description to disallow the use of their mods in paid contents

There is nothing wrong per se with the concept of people charging money for mods. But introducing this into a community that was built for many years on the basic principle that everybody is doing that for fun not for money, is just a really shitty move.
It certainly will cause a lot of bad blood in the community.(I would guess.)

Just look at what happened in the "The Sims" Community. The whole thing got so toxic that the topic 'paid mods' is simply not allowed to discuss anymore in most forums.

They should put some sliders for the payment a la Humble Bundle, with a minimum % for each party. And then show the results after some time, to see how often the pubs and Valve get more (and how much more) than said minimum.