The Fight Over Paid Video Game Mods

Earlier this week, CD Projekt Red, the makers of Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher games, found itself at the center of controversy over a mod that enabled users to play Cyberpunk 2077 in VR mode.

Jan Rouser, the company’s vice president of business development, took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain the company’s decision to issue a takedown notice against the mod. He said that the mod was a paid mod, only available to Patreon subscribers, and that it was a violation of the company’s fan content guidelines.

Luke Ross, the creator of the mod, saw things differently. He claimed that the mod didn’t use any content from the game and simply modified how the game was displayed. He claimed it was not a derivative work at all.

The response was mixed. Some users supported CD Projekt Red, saying the company’s policy, which allowed for “reasonable donations, “was more than fair. Others backed Ross, saying the company had overstepped.

But this wasn’t Ross’ first run-in with this issue. In July 2022, Take-Two Interactive filed a similar takedown request against Ross for a similar reason. Ross had created VR mods for several of the company’s games, including Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V. However, he similarly released those mods on his Patreon, requiring payment to access them, which prompted the response.

But this isn’t an issue that started in 2022. The fight over paid mods and the boundaries of what’s acceptable for modders goes back decades. However, perhaps the most important fight took place ten years ago and still leaves a scar on the scene today.

The Unspoken Rule

Though video game modding is as old as video games themselves, it really took off in the early 1990s with the release of Doom. ID Software, the makers of Doom, heavily encouraged modding, even providing tools to make it easier for people to create new levels, modify the game, and make other changes.

Since then, video game developers have regularly courted the modding community, providing tools and infrastructure to make and distribute mods. Some mods were even elevated to official releases, including Defense of the Ancients (or rather, its sequel), Counter-Strike, and Black Mesa.

However, through all of this, there has been one simple rule: Mods are to be distributed for free. This pressure has come from both video game studios and the modding community itself. Modders value their hobby being based on love and passion, and often criticize those who try to charge for their mods.

This came to a head in April 2015. That’s when Valve and Bethesda announced a partnership to enable the distribution of paid mods on the Steam platform. The project started with just one game, Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The backlash was severe. The companies quickly backtracked on the plan and dropped the idea altogether. To be clear, there were multiple problems with the plan, including low payouts for mod developers and the infringement of other intellectual properties, but much of the outcry came from the modding community itself.

But none of this has changed a simple fact. Modding has gotten much more complicated. Some mods take months or years to produce and then require constant maintenance and updating after release.

Understandably, some mods are going to want to be compensated for that time and effort. But the current boundaries offer few paths to do that.

Edge Cases and Testing Boundaries

To be clear, Ross’ example is something of an edge case. According to Ross, his mods don’t use any actual code from the games they work with and instead simply change how they are displayed.

While I cannot personally verify this, if true, it may raise questions if the mod itself is actually infringing. That said, other issues can be raised in how the mod is named, promoted, presented, etc. There are multiple potential copyright and trademark issues even without copying code or assets for the mod itself.

But another case that hits closer to the matter is that of the EverQuest Heroes Journey Emulator. In June 2025 Daybreak, the owners of the EverQuest game, filed a lawsuit against the owners of the emulator for copyright infringement.

EverQuest has a lengthy history of permitting emulators. These are essentially servers for the game that players can access. However, the vast majority of those emulators are free, while The Heroes Journey remains paid.

Daybreak quickly obtained an injunction that pulled down the emulator, but now the case is heading to arbitration.

What’s changed in these cases is that the modding community has, at least in some ways, become more accepting of paid mods. However, video game developers and publishers have not and, if anything, are becoming more resolute about barring them.

While it’s too early to tell if this trend will continue, it could put video game companies on a collision course with the modding community. That’s something that, most likely, neither side really wants.

Bottom Line

If you’re a long time reader of this site and this discussion sounds familiar, it’s because there have been similar discussions involving fan fiction and fan art. Interestingly, the Axanar lawsuit that redefined Star Trek fan fiction came just one year after the Valve/Bethesda debacle.

In fact, fan fiction had its own version of the Valve/Bethesda debacle in May 2013 when Amazon partnered with various companies to launch Kindle Worlds. That service attempted to allow users to publish and sell fan fiction. Though it never saw great success, it limped along for five years, finally closing in August 2018.

But what makes video game modding different is that, though the community is a long way from openly embracing paid mods, it clearly has warmed up to it some. Meanwhile, video game companies are drawing a clear line in the sand around it.

The video game industry has a long history of supporting modders, even elevating mods to official releases. But they’ve set a clear boundary on modders trying to sell their work directly to users.

This could, very easily, spill over into a major conflict between the two sides, especially if the mod-makers push harder for compensation for their work.