As Starfield Steam Reviews Plunge to ‘Mostly Negative,’ Todd Howard Responds to Paid Mods Backlash (2024)

Bethesda Game Studios chief Todd Howard has responded to a backlash over Starfield paid mods, confirming the developer will look at its pricing model for Creations content.

On Steam, Starfield’s recent user reviews are now on ‘Mostly Negative’ after disgruntled players hit out at Bethesda for charging $7 for a single Starfield mission. The second mission of the recently released Trackers Alliance is only available as a Starfield Creation and costs $7, or 700 credits.

Creations are built via Starfield’s Creation Kit, and include free and paid-for mods. Creations include new missions, gear, skins, and weapons. Here’s the official blurb from Bethesda:

Trackers Alliance establishes the first of several missions enabling you to live your best bounty-hunting life. The first mission, The Starjacker will have you in contact with a mysterious Tracker located in settlements throughout the Settled Systems. From there, let the hunts begin!

The second Trackers Alliance mission, The Vulture is available within the new Creations menu. And what bounty hunter is without their trusted methods to get the job done?

While this latest backlash revolves around The Vulture mission, Bethesda has faced criticism over paid mods before. Indeed it’s the studio’s continued effort to enable paid mods for its games that has rubbed some players up the wrong way.

“Really? Another push for curated paid mods no one asked for?” reads one negative Steam review. “There is a simple reason why many players and modders enjoy modding their games for decades: it is done as a hobby, for players by players, without corporate responsibilites and apart from donation opportunities, without asking for or expecting monetary compensation.

“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.”

In an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Todd Howard responded directly to the criticism, and confirmed plans to look again at Bethesda’s pricing for Creations content.

“We hear that feedback, too,” Howard said. “First of all I’ll say that stuff gets priced based on things that we've done before both in Creation Club and then Fallout 76, and we're always trying to be looking at what else is out there, really make sure we're giving value to everybody and where we're not, hey you know, we definitely will adjust.

“The one thing I want to say on The Trackers Alliance, that was really an attempt to something we did in Creation Club where we'd say, hey you get this special outfit and you get this special weapon, we wanted to put them together, and then thought, let's go the extra mile and wrap those around a quest.

“But now we definitely see the feedback right? And that's not what we want at all in terms of, oh no, this looks like a faction that we're chopping up and then selling for 700 credits at a time. And so I do think we are going to take a look at that and how we deliver content like that, and whether we're changing pricing or breaking it up or what we should do there. So, great feedback from the community.”

Howard insisted, however, that Bethesda’s policy on paid mods has the health of the modding community at heart.

“As it comes to, particularly the creators out there, look, our view is, a lot of them have gone from hobbyists to professionals. And it’s part of our job to make sure they can do that and they do get paid and they see the monetary rewards if they make awesome content,” Howard said.

Elsewhere, Howard has confirmed plans to release a second story expansion for Starfield following this year’s Shattered Space, and commented on the long development of The Elder Scrolls 6.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley atwesley_yinpoole@ign.comor confidentially atwyp100@proton.me.