Nexus Mods revealed yesterday that mod authors are now able to opt in the new ‘Donation Points’ system which will pay them based on the unique downloads their mods get each month, as originally announced last December.

A budget of $100K has been set to be distributed over the first year to modders.

"The premise of the Donation Points (DP) system is relatively simple on the surface. Each month Nexus Mods will donate a set amount of money into a central donation pool from which the total DP available that month will be calculated. At the end of each month, mod authors will receive DP based on how many unique downloads their mods received that month. How many DP your mod(s) receive will depend on a number of factors including how much money we have donated into the pool and how many unique downloads all the other opted-in files from other authors have received.

1,000 Donation Points will be worth $1 and mod authors will be able to choose from a number of ways to spend their DP, including receiving straight up Pay Pal donations, buying Premium Membership from Nexus Mods, donating their DP to a number of charities or sharing their DP with other users on the site that they like or have received help from. We hope to expand on what’s available in our store over the coming months and years while promoting exactly how much has been donated to mod authors (in a general sense) and how much we’ve given to charities on their behalf.

In the first couple of months, the money we donate into the pool will be lower than what we hope to donate each month. This is because we know it will take time for word to get out and we’d like to give all mod authors a good opportunity to gain from this system, rather than chucking a load of money into a big explosive opening only for a limited number of authors to benefit from it. However, I’ve set aside a budget of $100,000 from Nexus Mod’s own funds over the next 12 months to this system. Our gesture of thanks from Nexus Mods, and the users of Nexus Mods, to all the mod authors who use our site and share their work freely with the internet. Looking forward, we would also like to introduce a crowdfunding mechanism that will allow users of the site to donate to the monthly pool and top up what Nexus Mods is already paying in each month."

The side effect is that Guest Downloads won’t be permitted anymore, so you’ll now have to be logged into Nexus Mods to be able to download any files available on the website.