Fuck that's bad. Though I'm not playing starfield I'm certainly paying attention to shit like this. Before 76 I would have been a fully committed fanboy pre-ordering most, if not all, Bethesda games. Between 76 and other shenanigans they had dropped sharply out of favor. I wasn't going to buy a game brand new until reviews came out (hence why I still haven't played starfield). They gained some favor back with the TV series as it seemed well done for just my kind of interest level. Now they're losing it again.

Also, let's not forget they are the DLC pioneers and inventors of the historically important Horse Armor DLC.

Now that the fallout show was a success, they'll probably just put starfield on the backburner and wait till the heat dies down, then make a tv show about it. I'm willing to bet money on this.

I'll admit I've been in that crowd that believed they saw early efforts like horse armor and Bioware's infamous pay-to-continue Dragon Age quests, and backed off - resolving they need to shift monetization elsewhere like skins. Seems I was wrong.

You could argue given Starfield's overall failures, it's still in the sector of terribly-designed monetization that just gets forgotten by history, much like most mobile games. But, we're still in the process of writing that history.

The Bethesda of old is long dead.

The Bethesda of old who invented MTX with their $5-dollar horse armour?

Or the Bethesda of old who made millions by re-releasing the same game for 10+ years but refused to spend a dime to fix its bugs or give the players a functioning UI?

I don't see any problem with modders charging for their mods. They are doing work, and deserve to be compensated.

If they're creating additional deep content, I can see that being worth paying. If it's just some skins or configuration edits like wonky gravity, that would not be worth money to me. But I think it's a good thing to be able to add micro transactions for.

Take the original DOTA for example. A warcraft 3 custom map. It eventually dominated the custom game lobby, at least 3:1. I would have no problem with the creator(s) making money off their creation that contributed a ton of replayability the game.

When it comes down to it, it should be the modder's choice on if they want to charge for their work, and the consumers choice if they want to pay for it.

Also why I didn't have problems with microtransactions for skins, particularly when it was community driven like DOTA 2. Artists can make money creating non-game altering content, and fans get to personalize their characters.

12 people got really pissed, which is everyone.

Now with a paywall. Just like most other trashy games these days.

You forgot "loading screen simulator" unless they fixed that, i don't know.

Well, they are doing both

They are owned by Microsoft, until that changes it doesn't matter who is "in charge" at Bethesda they will be scummy.