Massive modding site Nexus Mods have announced a change in ownership, with founder Robin ‘Dark0ne’ Scott set to step back. As to who the new owners are, a couple of first names and modding profiles have been provided, as well as an assertion that these new overlords understand what makes Nexus Mods tick.
Scott – who founded the site as the Elder Scrolls-focused TES Nexus in 2001, and has owned it via his company Black Tree Gaming since 2007 – announced the news via a post on Nexus Mods.
“The strain of being responsible for the behemoth I created has taken its toll,” Scott wrote, “The stress of the job has been a regular source of anxiety and stress-related health issues. I realised that I have been burning out and this started to have an impact on my staff and Nexus Mods as a whole.
“So, I firmly believe that the best thing for the future of Nexus Mods is for me to step aside and bring in new leadership to steer the business forward with renewed energy to make Nexus Mods the modding community we all truly deserve.”
Following “months of meetings, face-to-face talks, and a whole lot of soul searching”, he believes he’s found new ownership that will “understand and respect the myriad intricacies of both Nexus Mods as a business and the wider modding community”.
Scott added: “I want to be clear, this isn’t some corporate “exit” or a backroom deal. This is me doing something I probably should’ve done years ago: taking care of myself.”
So, who’s taking over Nexus Mods? Well, further on in the post, Scott introduces folks called Victor and Marinus, linking to their Nexus Mods profiles under the handles Foledinho and Rapsak, and revealing that they’ve “come on board to lead this next chapter”.
“They’ve got deep roots in gaming, tech, and most importantly, they give a damn; about the site, the community, and the future we’re trying to build here,” he wrote, later adding “they’re about long-term stability, not changing the values or direction of the platform.”
Taking a look at the profiles of these two, whose full names haven’t been provided, you can see that they’ve been given the same ‘site owner’ tag Scott’s account currently boasts. “For the past decade, I’ve been building platforms in gaming and UGC,” Foledinho’s profile bio says, citing his goal with Nexus Mods as being to “help make modding easier, where games evolve through the hands of players.”
Rapsak, meanwhile, “started producing music on a PlayStation at eight years old and eventually became a DJ, touring internationally and playing shows with music I’d made myself.
“At the same time, I was diving deeper into tech, building PCs at 13, launching my first business at 15 (a DJ booking system), and writing code every chance I got,” he goes on. Rapsak also notes that he only ever wears black T-shirts, which is “not a fashion thing, just one less decision to make in the morning.” Ok then.
We’ve reached out to Nexus Mods for comment.
According to Scott, the ownership change shouldn’t result in much of a change in terms of the day-to-day user experience on Nexus Mods in the near future, with its “team of 40 incredibly dedicated people, some of whom have been here for over nine years” still in place.
