Anyone who claims to know otherwise based on "Corporations are stupid and like money" instead of known factors and statements is making shit up and everyone knows it. We only know that Bethesda is intending to pursue that path again. We do not know how or when.
Except "Corporations are stupid and like money"
IS a known factor, because time and time again multiple corporations over multiple fields have business have
shown they're willing to stoop to practically everything to make an extra few $$$s.
However, claiming that paid mods will not only succeed but also ruin the games industry even further and lead into absurd bollocks like paid patches is taking things too far and devalues the debate as a whole.
Ruin the games industry further? Yes, actually, they will, because they'll ruin the modding scene, which is [i[part[/i] of the games industry. It won't be bad and in fact I'll support it myself (if grudgingly since "give an inch, take a mile) if they decide to take the "Certain high-quality mods like Path to Elsewyr are individually selected and worked on by Bethesda in tandem with the modders to bring them up to DLC standard."
That is, actually vet their stuff properly.
If it's
anything like what they attempted with Skyrim though, it'll be terrible.
Paid patches might seem like absurd bollocks, but tell me, is it
really such a stretch to imagine? Of course, I doubt they'd do it on PC, since that would make pretty much everyone take up the black flag, but on the poor consoles?
See, they won't do it openly, they'll do it sneakily. They won't sell you the patch itself, they'll sell you what you need to
get the patch, or have it work. Or maybe they'll take up "Premium patching". "Free patching" fixes critical game-destroying bugs, and "Premium patching" does all the rest. Hey, it's just like a bit of mod DLC.