If this seems a bit too difficult, steam could also just allow all users to get mods without requiring a game license.Īnother final option (which seems like the best medium) is to allow mod creators to have a checkbox for this. I suggest a way to verify that the user actually has a licensed copy of the game, no matter the originating store, and to provide mods for such users. However, there is currently no alternative solution to get mods for these games, leaving a large portion of the playerbase which would like to use mods, without any other option. I understand (as stated in the Steam Subscriber Agreement), that Valve does not have any such obligation to distribute workshop content. This is predominantly an issue as most mods are posted onto the Steam Workshop, which is the most popular distribution method for said mods. However, some games have this feature disabled, leading to said non-Steam games lacking any way to install mods from the Steam Workshop.

The only alternative solution would be to use the Steam CMD console to fetch mods through an anonymous user / logged account. These mods could then be manually installed into games which were not featured on steam (Xbox Game Pass, GOG, Epic Games, etc). Previously, a tool named the 'Steam Workshop Downloader' was used to download mods (This was discontinued as per Valve's request).

Steam mod workshop downloader