Bethesda: ‘There are no plans for paid mods in Fallout 4’

It seems that the controversy surrounding the addition of paid mods to Skyrim has cooled Bethesda’s desire to reintroduce the service.

The publisher worked with Valve to allow mod creators to charge for their Steam Workshop creations for the 2011 RPG in April.

However, mere days later the platform was pulled, after suffering a particularly heated reaction from sections of the community.

Bethesda’s next title, Fallout 4, was revealed just before E3, leading to questions over the presence of similar paid modding in the upcoming title.

These questions became particularly prominent after Microsoft’s E3 conference, where the platform holder revealed that PC mods for the game would also work on Xbox One.

But it seems that, at least for the moment, Bethesda has shifted focus away from charging for user-created content.

Speaking to German publication Spiegel Online(via Kotaku), game director Todd Howard was asked whether paid mods would make a return in Fallout 4.

"How long was the online payment system [available for]? 24 hours?" he responded.

"I can only speak for the present time, but currently there are no plans for a payment system."

The news is sure to delight some fans, who reacted poorly to the idea of paying for content that has traditionally by-and-large been free.

However, several developers who found their feet in the modding scene previously told MCV that enabling paid modding could potentially be the way to greater maturity and evolution of the PC sector.