loading
loading
Nexus Mods acquires SteamDB after 13 years of solo dev work — promises no ads, no paywalls, and smarter mod-update tracking Integration between SteamDB data and Nexus Mods should also help mod gamers It may come as a surprise to many readers (and me) to realize that the venerable SteamDB, used and beloved by a good chunk of PC gamers, was actually a one-man effort. The hero in question is Pavel Djundik (aka xPaw), who's been single-handedly developing, designing, managing, and doing systems administration for most of the site's 13 years of existence. He's earned his figurative retirement and now handed over the reins to well-known modding site Nexus Mods. In a public statement and subsequent FAQ, Nexus Mods (NM) clarifies the acquisition situation. To immediately assuage fears, NM says that SteamDB will remain ad-free and won't have any paywalls placed on existing content. Users won't be required to use a NM account to browse the site, nor will there be any forced integration between both properties. The FAQ clearly states that NM "[is] not interested in changing SteamDB into something it isn't." The new owners also explain in detail how meshing together both NM and SteamDB has the potential to be extremely beneficial for the modding community, at least at face value and our own experiences with game modding, they appear to have an excellent point. Installing and maintaining a set of mods for a game in this day and age is relatively easy, but anyone who's ever done it knows it's all sunshine and rainbows until a game update drops and breaks your careful curation. SteamDB keeps track of game versioning down to individual deployments, complete with release dates, and changed files (a rough analog to a GitHub commits) — here's the info for Stalker 2 as an example. Nexus Mods can leverage this information to warn you there's a pending update, execute version pinning (keeping the game locked at a version that's compatible with the mod list), and also know if a mod install or uninstall broke the game installation, since it'll know what the unmodified files are meant to look like. This ought to allow for far better troubleshooting, too. As far as the future of SteamDB goes, NM says straight up states the site "needs to make money," as it's relied on donations to Djundik and his daily work for a long while. Despite the monetization intentions, NM says "[it wants] to be smart about it," isn't looking to put ads on SteamDB, sell personal data, or put up paywalls or login walls. The NM folks mention partnerships, integrations, and affiliate links with publishers as ways to keep the numbers in the black, particularly as they intend for SteamDB to have an actual team running it. For his part, Pavel Djundik tells a sadly familiar story: SteamDB was one of his passion projects, but as the site grew, the "self-inflicted workload [took] its toll." According to Djunidk, the radical change of the internet after COVID and the rise of AI sapped his passion further, and working as the sole man in the operation was unsustainable. He'd wanted to hand over the reins for years, but it wasn't until now he found "a worthy partner," particularly one that wouldn't riddle the site with ads. A hearty salute for your service, sir. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals. - Concerned Liberty Reply Why? They've honored my lifetime membership for over a decade, now, and counting. I see no reason to not trust them.-Fran- said:SteamDB is cooked now. Zero trust with the NexusMod people now. Regards. - doubleaxle Steamdb will have no credibility anymore. Reminds me of when Rotten Tomatoes purchase.Reply - Concerned Liberty Reply Could you elaborate on why they wouldn't have any credibility? Exactly what is it about NexusMods makes you incredulous?doubleaxle said:Steamdb will have no credibility anymore. Reminds me of when Rotten Tomatoes purchase. - -Fran- Reply You just said it yourself by mentioning "membership".Concerned Liberty said:Why? They've honored my lifetime membership for over a decade, now, and counting. I see no reason to not trust them. Mods (remember: shorthand for "modifications") have always been something people has made for passion and love for games for anyone willing to try them out, but Nexus put the greedy spin to it and throwing tantrums when pointed that they can't do business using another's IP as link to it and charging people for the privilege of accessing mods. There's a HUGE difference between charging a fee and asking for a tip when doing these things. Even tips are not completely safe, but fees are absolutely wrong. In short: it's a principled reason. Get ready for SteamDB to get behind a paywall now. Regards. - Concerned Liberty Reply Not a single mod hosted on the site is locked behind a paywall, though? The membership gets rid of ads and makes downloads faster. I guess it also enables the collections feature, too. There are other tools that do the same thing as collections without needing the membership, like Wabbajack.-Fran- said:You just said it yourself by mentioning "membership". Mods (remember: shorthand for "modifications") have always been something people has made for passion and love for games for anyone willing to try them out, but Nexus put the greedy spin to it and throwing tantrums when pointed that they can't do business using another's IP as link to it and charging people for the privilege of accessing mods. There's a HUGE difference between charging a fee and asking for a tip when doing these things. Even tips are not completely safe, but fees are absolutely wrong. In short: it's a principled reason. Get ready for SteamDB to get behind a paywall now. Regards.
document fetched 2026-09-04 02:52 · canonical https://tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/nexus-mods-acquires-steamdb-after-13-years-of-solo-dev-work-promises-no-ads-no-paywalls-and-smarter-mod-update-tracking