Bethesda Creation Club pricing analysis

Bethesda's Creation Club on-demand paid DLC service just went live in Fallout 4 on PC, giving players an idea of how much real-world money they'll have to shell out to purchase extra in-game content.

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I've been quite vocal for my support of Bethesda's Creation Club infrastructure; on paper it's a great plan to add a recurring revenue stream to Bethesda Game Studios' massively iconic franchises to ensure long-term earnings. After all, in today's industry landscape, full game sales aren't enough and studios are focusing on integrating microtransactions, DLC, and other such lucrative strategies into their games. Creation Club is essentially Bethesda's take on microtransactions, but solidified into a platform nestled into its Bethesda.net framework and leveraging the modding scene that its games are known for.

That being said, Creation Club is likely off to a rocky start. The service, which lives alongside free mods as an optional storefront that peddles one-time purchases of extra content for credits that are bought with real-money, only has a small offering of content available for Fallout 4. The service will offer content to both Fallout 4 and Skyrim across PS4, Xbox One and PC. The pricing scheme is also a reason for concern.

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Creation Club credits can be purchased in increments from 750 credits for $7.99 to 5500 credits for $40, and if consumers buy the more expensive pricing tiers, the more credits-per-dollar ratio is delivered. Bethesda has given 100 credits out to everyone to "celebrate" the launch, meaning the studio is giving you about a dollar to spend on approximately four different paint jobs.

At the time of writing the Creation Club has only 12 pieces of content to buy, the cheapest--a Pip-Boy skin--at 50 credits, or $0.47, and the most expensive--the Hellfire Power Armor--at 500 credits, or $4.70. There are no major world-affecting mods that add dramatic changes to the game--right now it's extra items, armor, and a single furniture pack.

Below you can find the Creation Club pricing tier, along with the content currently available for sale in Fallout 4. Note that Skyrim and Fallout 4's Creation Club offerings will be varied but the pricing remains the same across both games.

Note: Creation Club credit balance will be shared across Xbox One and PC versions of Fallout 4 and Skyrim. PlayStation 4 owners will not be able to carry over their credits.

Creation Club Pricing Model

• 750 Creation Club credits - $7.99 | 94 credits per $1 spent
• 1500 Creation Club credits - $14.99 | 100 credits per $1 spent
• 3000 Creation Club credits - $24.99 | 120 credits per $1 spent
• 5500 Creation Club credits - $39.99 | 137.5 credits per $1 spent

Creation Club Storefront Selection - Fallout 4 (PC)

Note: Pricing conversions are estimates based off of the 1500 CC pack tier ratio.

• Hellfire Power Armor - 500 credits | ~$5
• Prototype Gauss Rifle - 400 credits | ~$4
• Modular Military Backpack - 400 credits | ~$4
• Chinese Stealth Armor - 400 credits | ~$4
• Morgan Yu's Space Suit (Prey crossover) - 400 credits | ~$4
• Modern Furniture Pack - 300 credits | ~$3
• Horse Power Armor - 250 credits | ~$2.50
• Handmade Shotgun - 200 credits | ~$2.50
• Power Armor Onyx Paint Job - 100 credits | ~$1.00
• 3x Pip-Boy Paint Jobs - 50 credits each | ~$0.50

It's worth noting that the following values were taken from the Creation Club beta test within Fallout 4 on PC, and I strongly believe the studio will continually update and evolve the storefront over time. This is just the beginning, and we can expect lots more sales, cross-overs, and other content to fill out the storefront in the coming weeks.

Bethesda is making a big push with this monetized storefront, and even if the core marketplace simply isn't very popular and is totally overshadowed by free mods, the studio won't give up on it--this is Bethesda's way to monetize Skyrim, Fallout 4 and future BGS titles in a meaningful way to ultimately pull in long-term revenues. Expect more value-oriented content to come in the future.

The full Creation Club will release on consoles today, and will likely offer more content. We'll be sure to update you once we have more information.