Change of owner worries community, raising questions about the future of free, community-driven modding.
Update: It looks like enough people were worried about the changes, as the new owners have added an FAQ as a sticky comment to the original post. In that post, they address some of the worries shared by the community. For example, regarding monetization:
Monetization is hard and Nexus Mods is a complex platform. What matters most is continuing to support mod authors, delight users, and keep the lights on. We’re not changing the core model. No aggressive monetization. No paid mods. If anything, we’re aiming for fewer ads, not more. We’ll take a community-first, listening approach, and we won’t compromise on what’s made Nexus Mods special.
They also addressed free and lifetime accounts, as both stay exactly the way they are now. Additionally, they addressed why the original post did not mention who the new owners were:
This post wasn’t about Chosen — it was about Robin and the legacy he built over 24 years. We’re the new owners and ultimate decision-makers at Nexus Mods. We’ll share more about ourselves when we’ve earned that right. For now, we’re focused on listening, learning, and making modding even easier, and yes, you’ll see us around in the community being active.
Overall, it seems they said exactly what people wanted to hear. Now they need to demonstrate that they can back up their words with actions.
Original Story: Yesterday, news dropped that after nearly 24 years, Dark0ne is stepping back as the owner of popular community modding site Nexus Mods. He wrote:
So yes, the ownership of Nexus Mods has changed hands, but I want to be clear, this isn’t some corporate “exit” or a backroom deal. This is me doing something I probably should’ve done years ago: taking care of myself. Reclaiming some headspace. And finally letting go of the idea that I have to do everything and be responsible for everything myself.
According to Dark0ne, this change shouldn't have any impact on how Nexus Mods operates:
Behind the scenes, I’ve already been stepping back bit by bit. Over the past few years, the team has taken on more of the weight and the site’s been doing better than ever. What’s changing now is simply the formality of it, making sure the right people are in place to guide Nexus Mods into the next era.
That includes some structural updates to the company ownership that we aren’t shouting about, but I want to be transparent: they’re about long-term stability, not changing the values or direction of the platform. Nexus Mods is community-first and mod-author focused, that’s not up for negotiation.
The part that I find a bit strange: nowhere in the announcement post do you learn who the new owners are. But the detectives of ResetEra took it upon themselves, and they discovered that Chosen likely took over ownership of what is probably the most popular mod repository.
Now, here is the part that has people worried: Chosen helps gaming start-ups improve monetisation (just look at this 'cheat sheet'). Naturally, this leads the community to believe that enshittification is about to hit Nexus Mods, and that the site will slowly pivot towards making more revenue. One potential way to achieve this is to push heavily towards paid mods, with Nexus Mods taking a fee on every transaction. Think Apple and the App Store with their 30% cut.
Making money is, of course, not necessarily a problem. Both creators and platforms should be compensated for the work they put in. But the incentives are what make this a risky situation. The modding community has mostly thrived on motivated people putting in a lot of effort to create fantastic mods. Some of these mods later became standalone games. (Nexus Mods also has a system in place to compensate mod creators financially through a donation system.) We'll see how this might now change if monetisation is the end goal.
Also, I'm expecting things to change for the end user. While nothing has been communicated yet, I wouldn't be too surprised if memberships are pushed harder. But as a lifetime premium owner, I'm at least relieved to hear that the mods don't plan to kill this perk (for now?).
We've reached out to Nexus Mods for comment and will update when we hear back.
