Nexus Mods is being sold after 24 years by burned-out owner

If you’re a PC gamer who has ever altered a single-player game, you’ve probably ventured into Nexus Mods, the largest repository of user-made mods on the internet. Even if you haven’t, the website’s impact on the industry is undeniable: Enormous games and franchises, from Skyrim to The Witcher, have tapped users for their own modding efforts on consoles, and some more prominent names have gone on to work at major gaming companies. Throughout, the website fueling this cultural impact has been owned by Robin “Dark0ne” Scott. And now, the modding site will be changing hands.

The site, which hosts thousands of mods for games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring, had humble beginnings. Born in 2001 out of Scott’s bedroom, Nexus Mods has since quietly gone on to become a juggernaut in the space. Entire YouTube channels or series are dedicated to showcasing mods in games like Grand Theft Auto 5. Some games, like Stardew Valley or titles made by Bethesda, are only played by fans after they’ve downloaded a variety of mod enhancements and tweaks. Other games, like Fallout 4, have remained in the spotlight well after their release as fans create extensive updates that are functionally expansions or their own separate games.

Nexus Mods also often found itself at the center of many of gaming’s cultural wars, thanks to mods that beautify women or change the apparent race of popular characters, among other things. The website responded to this phenomenon by briefly banning mods that attacked diversity in 2023, such as those that removed LGBTQ+ elements from games. Nexus Mods also banned political mods in the lead-up to the presidential election in 2020, and explored paying creators in 2017 through a donation-based system, a couple of years after Bethesda faced backlash for attempting its own version of paid mods. The site has also seen its share of controversies, like when it stopped allowing users to delete mods or when it walked back on its rules regarding “hateful” content. Since many mods deal with copyrighted properties that technically belong to companies, some mod creators have also landed in hot water.

At the moment, Scott has not shared who the new owners of Nexus Mods are, instead only emphasizing that the decision was made with great care. The buyers, Scott says, both care about long-term sustainability for the collection of sites and understand the modding community as a whole. The new owners, Scott promises, will be stewards of a community-first, mod-author-focused website.

The move is one that Scott has been considering for a long time, but did not feel empowered to make without finding the right fit. In a vulnerable post explaining the sale, Scott shared that he’s been dealing with a lot of pressure while leading Nexus Mods, much of which he didn’t anticipate when he began the venture decades ago. He writes:

 Every single day, for over two decades, I’ve been “on call”, whether it was fixing issues, reading feedback, pushing updates, or getting pulled into the latest bit of community drama. It’s been rewarding, sometimes chaotic, often exhausting and always personal. Somewhere along the way, I forgot to step back and breathe, or sleep properly. The dilemma of running a major social network that does not rest!

The strain of being responsible for the behemoth I created has taken its toll. The stress of the job has been a regular source of anxiety and stress-related health issues. I realised that I have been burning out and this started to have an impact on my staff and Nexus Mods as a whole. So, I firmly believe that the best thing for the future of Nexus Mods is for me to step aside and bring in new leadership to steer the business forward with renewed energy to make Nexus Mods the modding community we all truly deserve.

As a result of these demanding duties, Scott says that he’d already been stepping back a bit from the day-to-day of the site over the last few years. Though Scott is the face of Nexus Mods, the mod repository is the work of 40 people, some of whom have been at the site for nearly a decade. His shift away from the site, he claims, has made Nexus Mods more successful than ever before.

Scott also assures people that he won’t be disappearing after the sale. Folks can still find him on the Nexus mod author Discord, and he’ll still advise on the overall direction of the site — he just won’t have the final say on all matters.

“Frankly, that’s a good thing, for me, for the team, and for the future of Nexus Mods,” Scott writes.

Thomas the Tank Engine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.