Today we?re excited to announce that CurseForge is joining the Overwolf pack! 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. Here, we?ll explain what went down, why we made the move, and what this means to the CurseForge community.
Why would Overwolf expand to mods?
For those unfamiliar with what we do these days, Overwolf is a framework that enables 3rd party creators to develop, grow, and monetize in-game apps for leading PC games like League of Legends, CS:GO, Hearthstone and more. We?re a team of 70 developers, techies, and geeks with League of Legends and World of Warcraft being the most played games in the office. Overwolf offers all the tools and resources creators need to earn a living doing what they love ? creating great apps used by gamers all over the world. We provide an opportunity for creators to work full time on their apps & mods, not just as a hobby, and as a result build higher quality products for gamers to enjoy. In the past twelve months, apps on Overwolf were used in over 1.92 billion game sessions, with top creators on Overwolf earning over $1,200,000 per year.
We always wanted to get into the modding space, and after seeing so many creators benefit from easily building and distributing in-game apps using Overwolf, we felt like the timing is right. When we?ve learned that CurseForge was looking for a new home, it seemed like a great fit. CurseForge has been an incredible resource for gamers and mod authors for over a decade. Its community of passionate creators and gamers is now the standard modding platform for World of Warcraft, Minecraft and many other games.
Empowering creators is what Overwolf is literally all about, so we saw this as a natural next step for us. We felt we could provide a good home for the entire CurseForge community ? supporting both mod authors and gamers. We?re confident we can offer CurseForge the home it deserves, one that would truly secure its future for years to come.
What will this mean for gamers?
CurseForge will transition out of the Twitch client and into a new dedicated desktop app on Overwolf (here?s a demo video on how dedicated apps on Overwolf work). A CurseForge team of engineers inside Overwolf will be in charge of continuously improving the Curseforge app to be the best mod manager out there. We?re getting all the code from Twitch, so we?ll start in October with everything as is, and then gradually add new features and tools like global search and smart sync, based on the needs and interests of the community.
The new dedicated CurseForge app
So is CurseForge going away?
Definitely not. CurseForge will remain a standalone brand, within the Overwolf family of apps. The Curseforge.com website will stay exactly the same, and the mod manager will leave the Twitch client and become a dedicated CurseForge app for PC and Mac.
Will the new CurseForge app include ads?
Yes, with an opt-out. We want to make modding a legit profession, and we want to find ways for modders to make a living. 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. You might remember the ads on the old Curse client, before the Twitch acquisition, so we?re thinking about iterating on that experience. But, in parallel ? for those who do not wish to support creators, we?re thinking about ways of opting out. Clearly, subscription will be one of these options, but we?re also thinking about an opt-out without payment. Eventually, as we?ve seen with gaming apps, we believe non-intrusive in-app ads will support mod authors and help them invest more time and effort in their creations. That said ? you?ll never see an ad in-game, just in-app. You?re definitely not going to see any ads inside WoW addons or anything wonky like that.
What will happen to my connected accounts and mod lists?
We?re working with Twitch to ensure a smooth transition. Once Twitch is able to transfer a user?s account in accordance with its privacy protection practices (GDPR etc.), the account should see no change and maintain its mod list/mod packs. Learn more about how Twitch and Overwolf are protecting the privacy of your CurseForge account here: http://curseforge.overwolf.com/privacy
How will I upload and manage my mods?
The mod author dashboard will initially remain as-is, so uploading new mod updates and managing your mods will remain completely unaffected. We plan to buff it in the future.
I have some ideas, who could I talk to?
We invite everyone to share with us what they?d like to see (and what they?d like to never see) at CurseForge. So please speak up ? feel free to send us your great ideas over Discord.
We?re dedicated to being as transparent as we can around the transition. You can follow our development roadmap here, and find additional details about the transition plan here. We will also be hosting a two hour AMA over Reddit, on Tuesday June 23rd, 2020 at 10am PST. The link will be published prior to the event on Twitter, and a referral link will be shared on the Overwolf subreddit.
We?re committed to the long journey
We?ve successfully helped many app creators turn their passion into a profession, and now we are ready to do the same for mod authors. That said, there are many differences between apps and mods, and we don?t have all the answers. We know some of you have been part of this community since the cracking days, and we will look to your expertise as we grow together. We want you to know you will always be heard.
We believe that creators who build awesome products used by gamers worldwide should be able to make a decent living off of their work. With that in mind we are pledging that mod authors will earn 50% more than what they?re making today by 2022. The current Author Rewards Program will remain unaffected during the transition, and in the future we?ll plug in additional monetization streams of which a large chunk (70?80%) will be shared with authors.
We?re determined to help CurseForge grow and evolve, and are honored to have the opportunity to do so. Welcome to the pack CurseForge ? let?s do this!
