Valheim: Developers criticize paid mods

The modding community thrives on the enthusiasm of the fans, but is also at the mercy of the developers. If they don’t provide good tools, creating fan content is extremely difficult. Iron Gate Studio, the creative minds behind Valheim, now have some strong words for the modders of their survival game up their sleeves.

Some of the most popular games of all time are the result of mods. Consider Counter-Strike, which was originally a Half-Life fan mode. Or DOTA, which emerged from the “Defense of the Ancients” map. There are almost no rules for the modding community, but almost everyone agrees on one point: They have to be free.

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Apparently some modders of the survival hit Valheim see things differently. This is also a thorn in the side of the Iron Gate Studio developers, as a new blog post now reveals.

Accordingly, one received “many questions about mods”. It is also important to mention that the developers do not officially offer any modding tools. However, they are not opposed to the fan content, on the contrary, they are happy that players are engaging with Valheim at this level.

But what goes completely against the grain for them are modders who demand money. It says: “Of course we understand that you put a lot of time into the development of a mod and maybe want financial compensation for it, but Iron Gate does not condone that modding content is locked behind a paywall.”

Clear words, but the justification is also more than understandable: “In our view, charging money for a mod goes against the creative and open approach of modding itself, and we therefore call on all mod creators to send their mods to everyone they want to play for free. This should apply to the entire mod, not just make certain parts available for free while others cost money.”

According to the studio, however, voluntary donations are fine. Finally, they emphasize once again that they have nothing against mods per se.