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Is selling mods for commercial games legal?

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First post, by BEEN_Nath_58

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I used to play a game from Electronic Arts named Cricket 07. It had a huge fanbase in the cricket playing nations initially (Aus, SA, NZ, etc) and eventually caught up with the other nations like India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

I was an active member in the modding community in 2018-2019. Later I stopped that hobby and played the default game or the other mods.

Returning to the game after 2years I see the modding community has vanished. Mods are being sold at prices like 9USD or 15USD. Where for years this was done for free, it has no become a paid content.

Is it legal to sell mods like this? EA although no longer sells the game but still has their pages up.

previously known as Discrete_BOB_058

Reply 2 of 5, by chinny22

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All comes down to the licence agreement, alot of modern games allow you to create mods but they own the rights to the content. How enforceable this is internationally would be another matter.

Of course this is nothing new, Ever since CD's became popular companies have been downloading and selling them on disc, not always giving credit or honouring the creators wishes.

Reply 3 of 5, by The Serpent Rider

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Shrak for Quake comes to mind.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 4 of 5, by leileilol

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There's strict usage rights when it comes to released game tools from the developer and that a license must be acquired for any commercial exploitation. id authorized Shrak.

HL SDK's strict non-commercial usage rights didn't stop the rush of 'i want valve to buy me and release my game' ambitions since Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat retail...

Roster updates though seems like a different area altogether, like flight sim planes, but then there's also subscription sites like those nexuses that wall off mods (ew)

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Reply 5 of 5, by BEEN_Nath_58

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chinny22 wrote on 2023-12-05, 23:53:

All comes down to the licence agreement, alot of modern games allow you to create mods but they own the rights to the content. How enforceable this is internationally would be another matter.

Considering that the game is a sports game, here are a few things that is different and is SOLD: correct player names, scorecard graphics, accurate stadiums, player models, trophy models, proper tournament naming, maybe a jukebox as well (was a common practice back in the day).

leileilol wrote on 2023-12-06, 02:30:

There's strict usage rights when it comes to released game tools from the developer and that a license must be acquired for any commercial exploitation. id authorized Shrak.

HL SDK's strict non-commercial usage rights didn't stop the rush of 'i want valve to buy me and release my game' ambitions since Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat retail...

Roster updates though seems like a different area altogether, like flight sim planes, but then there's also subscription sites like those nexuses that wall off mods (ew)

The game didn't have any developer made tools available. Since it was based on EAGL, some of the tools made for previous games like NFS worked for it. Other tools were made by the community, many of whom left the community long ago.
I find it hard to believe how some group of modders can get access to music, graphics, roster, model licensing legally while more popular games on PC or consoles or phones can't buy that.

previously known as Discrete_BOB_058

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