It just strikes me as somewhat odd. I mean judging by the teaser video, the Steam integration itself doesn’t really offer us anything that Nexus, Planet Elder Scrolls, and other sites haven't already done a fine job with for years.

On the flip side, all the hassle, all the delay (of the CK, which looks awesome BTW), and now a patch 1.4 which for many including myself completely breaks the game (crashes, sound cut-outs, terrible stutter.)

I just have to wonder, what were the corporate marketing guys thinking? Unless there's something we haven't been told yet...

There`s obviously some hidden advantage to Bethesda as there`s no need to force-push this stuff on us. Why not optional? Choice? is that not a win\win for everyone?

I don't think the Marketing Department was responsible for the patch.

Maybe the kit had bugs that Bethesda wanted to fix before releasing the kit.

I think its convenience and high profile are going to introduce modding to a whole lot of gamers that were either unaware of it or didn't think it was worth the trouble. Since Bethesda supports modding in most of their games, increasing the number of gamers that like modding should increase the demand for their products.

If your going to post a thread complaining about something, then get your facts straight. Steam is not a requirement to download, install and use mods. It is just another distribution system.