Who Owns a Game Mod: Why Its Creator May Receive Nothing
Counter-Strike, DOTA and PUBG all began as modifications of other games. However, not every mod creator becomes the owner of the project they have created. In some cases, the rights belong to the game publisher; in others, they are transferred to a newly established studio; and sometimes everything is determined by the terms of the End User Licence Agreement.
Whether you are developing a mod, working for a game studio or planning to build a user-generated content ecosystem around your game, this issue directly affects your ability to monetise the project.
| In an article prepared for bluescreen.kz, REVERA Law Group lawyers Kamal Tserakhau and Hleb Shumilau explain how games and other content based on existing fictional universes can be created lawfully. |
This issue is becoming increasingly relevant to independent developers and game studios in Kazakhstan. As the local gaming industry grows, more teams are using existing game engines and developing user-generated content.
Understanding who owns the rights to modifications is therefore no longer merely an academic question, but an integral part of business strategy.
Why a Mod Is Not Entirely Your Own Work
The history of the gaming industry shows that modifications created by enthusiasts regularly develop into independent commercial franchises.
This raises a fundamental question: does the creator of a mod have any rights in the result of their work where it has been created “on top of” another person’s work?
The legal starting point is clear. By definition, a mod constitutes a derivative work — that is, a work created on the basis of an existing game — within the meaning of Section 101 of the US Copyright Act, because it is based on the existing game, its code, engine and artistic assets. The creation of a derivative work requires the consent of the owner of the copyright in the original work under Section 106(2). In the gaming industry, that consent is almost always granted in advance, but subject to terms determined not by legislation, but by the particular publisher’s End User Licence Agreement (EULA).
What the EULA Determines
It is the EULA, rather than general copyright rules, that determines the actual scope of a modder’s rights. Licence agreements typically grant the publisher the right to use user-generated content without paying remuneration and, in some cases, expressly assign the rights in created modifications to the company.
The mod creator is permitted to create and distribute their work for non-commercial purposes, but does not automatically acquire the right to commercialise it and certainly does not acquire any rights in the underlying material incorporated into the modification.
How DOTA Became a Separate Franchise
The history of DOTA is particularly illustrative. The Warcraft III modification was successively developed by various members of the community — Eul, followed by Guinsoo, Meian, Madcow and IceFrog — and eventually grew into an independent franchise.
In 2012, the rights to the “DOTA” brand were secured by Valve following a settlement in its trade mark dispute with Blizzard. Valve obtained exclusive commercial rights to the name, while Blizzard renamed its competing project Blizzard All-Stars.
IceFrog, the key creator of the later versions of the mod, separately transferred the relevant development rights to Valve in 2010 and joined the company’s team. The rights were therefore secured not as a result of any presumption that the creator of the modification automatically owned them, but on the basis of commercial agreements between the companies.
Why Counter-Strike and PUBG Followed a Similar Path
Counter-Strike, originally a mod for Half-Life, followed a similar path, as did the battle royale genre, which developed out of DayZ: Battle Royale, a modification for Arma 2 created by Brendan Greene, also known as “PlayerUnknown”.
Following several years of further development and related projects, the idea formed the basis of the standalone game PUBG, released by Bluehole in 2017.
In 2018, PUBG Corporation brought legal proceedings against Epic Games in South Korea, alleging that Fortnite Battle Royale had copied elements of PUBG’s visual design and game mechanics. The claim was subsequently withdrawn.
This episode further confirmed a well-established principle in case law: legal protection extends to the specific expression of a game mechanic, rather than to a genre or a general gameplay idea. This is directly consistent with the reasoning in Baker v. Selden.
What Happens If You Sell a Mod Through Steam
A separate risk arises where mods are monetised through official platforms such as Steam Workshop.
Publishing a mod does not create an independent trade mark or brand for its creator. Moreover, the platform’s rules generally provide for the content to be licensed to the publisher of the underlying game where the mod is incorporated into a paid collection.
What Developers Should Do
For studios planning to develop a modding ecosystem around their product, the key task is to regulate the ownership and use of rights in user-generated content clearly and in advance through the EULA.
This helps prevent a situation in which the most commercially successful element of a franchise legally belongs to someone other than the person who originally conceived it.
What to Check Before Publishing a Mod
- whether the EULA permits the creation of mods;
- whether monetisation is permitted;
- who owns the relevant rights;
- whether the publisher may use your content;
- what happens if the mod is incorporated into the official game.
The main conclusion for independent developers is straightforward: creating a popular mod is not enough. Before investing months of work, developers should review the terms of the game’s licence.
Those terms will often determine whether the developer can monetise the project or whether all commercial rights will remain with the publisher.
This material was prepared for Bluescreen.kz.