Skyrim Paid Mods Not What the Community Wanted

"The feedback has been clear--this is not a feature you want."

As it faced an avalanche of criticism, Valve on Monday announced that it had decided to do away with paid mod support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a feature implemented just days earlier. Now, Bethesda--the publisher of Skyrim, which worked with Valve for years on the new feature--has released its own statement.


"After discussion with Valve, and listening to our community, paid mods are being removed from Steam Workshop," the company said on its blog. "Even though we had the best intentions, the feedback has been clear--this is not a feature you want. Your support means everything to us, and we hear you."

The release of this statement comes just hours after Bethesda published an in-depth blog post that outlined the company's reasoning behind offering paid mods for Skyrim in the first place. Bethesda at the time acknowledged that such a paid mod system had a ton of potential problems, but said the company was confident that these issues could be overcome.

"There are things we can control, and things we can't," Bethesda said. "Our belief still stands that our community knows best, and they will decide how modding should work. We think it's important to offer choice where there hasn't been before."

What do you make of Valve's decision to kill paid mods and Bethesda's statement? Let us know in the comments below!

The first GTX Titan launched in February

On Tuesday, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang delivered the keynote address at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference, and during his talk he revealed the price of the new GeForce GTX Titan X: $999. The first GTX Titan launched in February 2013 for $1000.

The GTX Titan X is based on Nvidia's latest GM200 GPU with eight billion transistors. The GTX 980, its most recent top-end card, has 5.2 billion. AMD's current top GPU, Hawaii XT, has 6.2 billion by contrast.

We'll be back with more info on the Titan X, and our review, shortly.

The Elder Scrolls Online's toughest monster

The Elder Scrolls Online's toughest monster has just now been vanquished: its subscription fee. Its now relaunched as The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, the clunky name chosen to signify that players no longer need to pay down a monthly stipend to access its world.

Rather than go fully free-to-play, TESO has opted to take The Secret World route—slipping into a Guild Wars-style model of paying for the game itself, sans a monthly fee. If you're an existing player interested in how the new version works, or what the ESO Plus membership is all about, head over to this FAQ.

Chris wasn't a big fan of TESO when it launched—his experiences with the game coloured by the fact that it wasn't very good. It's since had some work put into it, and it's these updates that are the focus of a new trailer released for the Tamriel Unlimited launch.

Total War Celebrates St. Patrick's Day

Total War: Attila Celebrates St. Patrick's Day with New Celtic Factions

Creative Assembly addresses one of the more common complaints about Total War: Attila.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Creative Assembly announced the Celts Culture Pack containing several new Celtic factions and missions for Total War: Attila. Reflecting their historical role, Celtic units focus heavily on mobility, guerrilla warfare, and raiding.

Until now, Celtic factions have been unplayable and represented with Scandinavian or Roman units, causing a few complaints to crop up on the Steam forums. The content pack should help flesh out the rather distinct tribes associated with what is now Ireland, creating a unique style of play in the process.

No release date or price has been announced for the culture pack.