Bethesda sparked one of the internet’s biggest controversies when they first launched their paid mods service for Skyrim. Due to the backlash they backed off the plan, but they apparently never fully gave up, announcing the Fallout 4 and Skyrim Creation Club. They claim that this new system isn’t actually “paid mods” and explain the key changes they’ve made to the program to avoid the problems from the first time. Now the service has gone live on Steam, with a beta program that allows anyone to judge whether Bethesda has actually lived up to the promises made so far.
“Now there’s even more to see, more to do – and more ways to survive in Fallout 4,” reads the announcement. “Creation Club is now in PC beta with a collection of new official content including Hellfire Power Armor, a Prototype Gauss Rifle, and Chinese Stealth Armor. You can even space out in a special suit inspired by Prey… or gallop through the Wasteland in Giddyup-Buttercup inspired Horse Armor.”
Many thought there might be a big piece of content to help launch the service, but it seems to mostly be small additions that cost a few dollars a piece. As mentioned, Bethesda contends that the Fallout 4 Creation Club is not “paid mods”, saying “Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like. Also, we won’t allow any existing mods to be retrofitted into Creation Club, it must all be original content. Most of the Creation Club content is created internally, some with external partners who have worked on our games, and some by external Creators. All the content is approved, curated, and taken through the full internal dev cycle; including localization, polishing, and testing.”
This program is in its infancy, so expect some big changes before it gets out of beta and is available to everyone.
