Modding organization and distribution platform CurseForge is leaving Twitch for greener pastures. Tech platform Overwolf has announced that it's bought the entirety of the platform from Twitch for an undisclosed sum of money, and a new owner means that some changes are coming.
"Today we’re excited to announce that CurseForge is joining the Overwolf pack!" enthused Overwolf's VP of Growth Gil Tov-Ly. "We’ve entered into an agreement with Twitch to assume leadership of the CurseForge community and products, effective today. With this acquisition, Overwolf is expanding its home for in-game apps to include game mods as well."
The acquisition is a natural expansion for Overwolf, a company that focuses on enabling third-party app creation for existing games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, and others. These upcoming changes also mean a potential boon for mod authors.
New CurseForge App Will Be Supported with Ads
The move from Twitch means that someone is going to have to pay the bills somehow — Overwolf aims to accomplish that via the use of ads.
"We want to make modding a legit profession, and we want to find ways for modders to make a living," read the blog post announcing the acquisition. "With 70–80% of ad revenue going to creators and distributed based on mod usage, we want to look into incorporating in-app ads in a way that is not intrusive."
Understandably, not everyone will be happy with having to deal with ads. Overwolf's VP of Growth Gil Tov-ly states that they are considering letting users opt-out of ads entirely, either with a no-strings-attached free option or a paid subscription option. Either way, any ads will only be within the new app and not in-game.
Whether you use ads or not, Overwolf is promising that mod authors will be making 50% more than what they're bringing in today by 2022. The company also plans to introduce more monetization streams, 70–80% of which will go directly to mod authors.
For now, CurseForge remains on Twitch; it will likely be some time before the transition is completed. You can read more about the future of Overwolf's newest acquisition in the blog post.
What do you think of Overwolf buying CurseForge from Twitch? Do you think they'll be able to make it succeed in a new ecosystem? Let us know in the comments below!
