Bethesda thought they were onto something when they announced the latest update to Starfield which introduced the Creation Kit for mod support and the Creation Store which showcases mods to buy.
However, it seems they didn’t learn from the 2006 drama of charging players for horse armour and now players are review bombing Starfield on Steam.
Starfield is getting a DLC expansion later this year called Shattered Space
It’s both a push into curated mods and the charging for said mods that have annoyed players this time. On paper, being shown quality mods sounds like a good idea. In practice, Bethesda has slapped a price on them and expected everyone to be just fine with it.
One positive point brought up at Summer Games Fest was the new bounty hunter quests but one of these quests is locked behind a paywall microtransaction.
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As one fan noted on Reddit, “A real shallow quest for $7 where for that price we got an entire very good DLC in Fallout 4 with Automatron”
We have to look at one particularly angry player who reviewed the game negatively on Steam and said, “You are not aiding modding in the slightest. You are trying to turn modding into a business opportunity, to be a parasite that profits from underpaid work you do not want to do yourselves.”
The strong words continue as many players expect modding to be an optional opportunity to extend the life of games. Modding has always been done for free because a creator had a cool idea.
Another Steam reviewer took their anger directly to Todd Howard saying, “Bethesda in their infinite wisdom thinks we should be paying $7 (actually $10 because they don't sell $7 worth of in-game currency) to play A SINGLE MISSION that should already be in the game to begin with. Thanks Todd.”
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It seems Bethesda hasn’t learned from the harsh lesson of 2006 after all.