"Disappointed" Skyrim modders pledge to never charge for their creations after Bethesda resurrects paid mod shop

Skyrim 16K dragon mod — (Image credit: NexusMods)

Some Skyrim modders are pledging to never charge for their creations in the wake of yesterday's update.

On December 5, Bethesda published a new update for Skyrim on all platforms that significantly overhauled the in-game Creation Club. In fact, Creation Club was gone entirely, and replaced by a new community-driven storefront simply called Creations, where paid-mods and other player creations could be purchased for real-world money.

Now, less than a day after the update, some Skyrim modders are pledging to never charge others for their mods. The post author just below, for example, writes that they're "disappointed" in the change and "don't support the new creations system," because it's attempting to capitalize on something they honestly just like doing purely for the fun of it.

My mods are never gonna cost money from r/skyrimmods

The comments underneath the Reddit post above are full of Skyrim players pledging to not only steer clear of paid-for mods, but also to check out the mods of the post author. It seems like plenty of the comments are supportive of the modder wanting to stay away from charging others for their work.

The post just below, meanwhile, comes from someone who's a bit of a celebrity among Skyrim's modders. The texture-based mod they're referencing in the post, Skyland, has been downloaded well over half a million times on NexusMods, and they write that they'll never submit their mods to the new storefront from Bethesda in protest.

I’ll Never Charge For My Mods Inclusing Skyland from r/skyrimmods

Elsewhere, the player just below writes that they're "devastated" by the new update after it effectively broke their version of Skyrim with over 150 mods installed over several days. They're now attempting to roll back Skyrim to an older version on their PC, while others in the comments write that they're disabling auto-updates in the future until they're sure Bethesda has sorted out the mess.

Devastated by the update from r/skyrimmods

What the person above is alluding to is the fact that the Creations update for Skyrim effectively broke a crucial scripting mod when it went live yesterday. The mod itself is crucial for other mods to actually work, hence why you're seeing players like the one above, who aren't modders themselves, railing against the new update from Bethesda and how it's affected the RPG.

For what it's worth, Bethesda wrote yesterday that it was working with the modding team behind the script mod to resolve the issue. At the time of writing, though, there hasn't been a progress update from either party.

Check out our guide covering the best Skyrim mods for a full look at the best additions to download right now.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.