This what i believe will happen: Next elder scroll or fallout will be a frame work where modders are supposed to build upon. You have the basics. World, factions, some quests. All modules (AI, weather, weapon, damage, visual effects, etc) can be freely tweaked. Alternate start is incorporated to base game with a few options. Modders can easily create more. Subscription model. You pay, you download as many mods as you want. You don't pay you have limited mod installations. Something like spotify but with mods. And then modders will get their cut based on endorsements. The more people (subscribers) download and endorse your mod the more you earn based on the total number of subscribers. More people subscribing means more money to modders. This will be an incentive to keep mods supported. Instead of DLCs we will have mod packs that add assets and mod tools. PR will talk about joint development between community and devs. A game made for and by the players. I believe paid mods will come. There's a lot of money to be made here. What i just wrote, i honestly don't think it's bad. Bethesda obviously can't make good RPGs. So, build the basics and leave the rest up to the community. We can build the game the way we want. Modders get rewarded. Todd Howards gets richer. Edit: for this to work they would force their platform on us. No more nexus.