Not saying there aren’t people who don’t like the vanilla experience, but it’s success would be nowhere near as huge if not for the modding community. Skyrim is the two biggest mod communities one Nexus, and the top 5 are all Bethesda games. In the top 8, 6 of them are Bethesda games. Skyrim has been on top since I’ve been using nexus, and I’ve been using it for a decade or more, and that’s to say nothing of the other sites out there. Clearly modding is a tremendous part of Skyrim’s appeal
But people also happily bought it on consoles with no/negligible mod support. How much do you think they sold on switch where it doesn’t go on sale below $30? Because I’m betting they made plenty.
Bethesda games are the only ones I can think of that have mod support for consoles. It’s way less than PC for sure, but I wouldn’t call it negligible
Considering most console games require a whole lot of work-around, even when their PC versions are more easily modded, I’d say just the existence of console mod support on Bethesda’s part is a recognition of the importance modding has on those games
Again, I’m not saying that Skyrim would have been a failure without mods, only that it’s incredible success would not have been achieved without them
It’s absolutely negligible. There isn’t a mod available on their official mod platform that anyone involved in the PC mode scene from actual mod distribution sites is installing.
Mod support on consoles is borderline unprecedented. The fact that the devs made sure that consoles got that goes to show just how negligible it isn’t. Skyrim is practically the face of game modding. Without any other context, if you bring up game modding, you’re most likely going to be conjuring skyrim in people’s heads. Modding is absolutely not negligible to Skyrim financially or even to its identity
It’s nothing but an excuse to pretend their distribution platform is legitimate.
There’s nothing remotely interesting available on the official Bethesda mod platform. It didn’t sell them any extra copies. It’s complete and utter trash.
There’s no connection and no commonality between that nonsense and the modding ecosystem that kept people playing on PC.
Not saying there aren’t people who don’t like the vanilla experience, but it’s success would be nowhere near as huge if not for the modding community. Skyrim is the two biggest mod communities one Nexus, and the top 5 are all Bethesda games. In the top 8, 6 of them are Bethesda games. Skyrim has been on top since I’ve been using nexus, and I’ve been using it for a decade or more, and that’s to say nothing of the other sites out there. Clearly modding is a tremendous part of Skyrim’s appeal
Modding plays a role.
But people also happily bought it on consoles with no/negligible mod support. How much do you think they sold on switch where it doesn’t go on sale below $30? Because I’m betting they made plenty.
Bethesda games are the only ones I can think of that have mod support for consoles. It’s way less than PC for sure, but I wouldn’t call it negligible
Considering most console games require a whole lot of work-around, even when their PC versions are more easily modded, I’d say just the existence of console mod support on Bethesda’s part is a recognition of the importance modding has on those games
Again, I’m not saying that Skyrim would have been a failure without mods, only that it’s incredible success would not have been achieved without them
It’s absolutely negligible. There isn’t a mod available on their official mod platform that anyone involved in the PC mode scene from actual mod distribution sites is installing.
Mod support on consoles is borderline unprecedented. The fact that the devs made sure that consoles got that goes to show just how negligible it isn’t. Skyrim is practically the face of game modding. Without any other context, if you bring up game modding, you’re most likely going to be conjuring skyrim in people’s heads. Modding is absolutely not negligible to Skyrim financially or even to its identity
It’s nothing but an excuse to pretend their distribution platform is legitimate.
There’s nothing remotely interesting available on the official Bethesda mod platform. It didn’t sell them any extra copies. It’s complete and utter trash.
There’s no connection and no commonality between that nonsense and the modding ecosystem that kept people playing on PC.
I would agree if we are talking longevity, but it was a success well before modding took off for it
Part of its success IS the longevity it got because modding keeps games alive
Skyrim sold between 15-20% of its copies on PC on release.
Modding support built the franchise fanbase, but it’s not why normies play Skyrim.
1 in 5 people being mod users is not negiligible