Valve boss Gabe Newell: Paid mods have only made $10K, and ‘that’s not stupidly greedy’

Pissing off the Internet is expensive, and not even charging for mods can pay for it.

Earlier this week, Valve — the company that owns and operates the Steam digital-distribution platform for PC gaming — rolled out a controversial new feature that enables the people who make and release mods to charge for their creations. The money then gets split between Valve, the original game publisher, and the mod maker — with the publisher setting the level of that cut. This has driven many players into a rage-filled frenzy. For decades, mods were free — and this is a big change.