The Creation Club isn’t so much of a paid mods platform as it is an in-game way for players to purchase currency and pick up DLC similar in size and function to the kind of community-made mods Skyrim has seen for half a decade. So, with such a controversy in its past, the differences between Skyrim’s early paid mods program and the Creation Club should be of particular note to game developers and mod-makers alike. The program itself imploded in a matter of days and kicked off a hefty discussion on the legal, practical, and even ethical questions paid mods posed.

While the program got its start in the wastelands of Fallout 4, the Creation Club’s jump to Skyrim is especially notable given the game’s troubled past with the implementation of 'paid mods.’ Both Bethesda and Valve partnered up way back in 2015 to try and transform Skyrim’s Steam Workshop into a marketplace where mod makers could affix a price tag on their wares and earn a chunk of change for their work. As with the Creation Club launched in Fallout 4 this past August, the Skyrim Creation Club is a microtransaction marketplace that offers players a selection of additional content like armor, items, and game modes created by both Bethesda and third-party mod makers.