Steam Workshop just got version control, hopefully making it less of a headache when game updates break all our mods

(Image credit: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

It's a tale as old as time: A major update just dropped for one of your favorite games, bringing exciting new features and much-needed overhauls. But in the process, it's busted all your beloved mods and all your saves that rely on them, forcing you and countless Steam Workshop commenters to wonder how soon mod authors will push updates of their own.

Hopefully, that's a headache that just got a lot less splitting. Valve just launched new version control options for Steam Workshop, ideally making it much simpler for players to choose compatible mod and game versions—assuming developers and mod creators have configured the necessary options.

TF2 Heavy giving the Bret Rambo thumbs up — (Image credit: Valve, YouTuber Mora Madness)

Steam has already given developers the option to provide access to different game versions, either letting players install beta branches to playtest upcoming features or older versions for mod and save compatibility. In a blog post, Valve announced new Steam APIs and Workshop options that "let game developers better define past game versions, and allow Workshop mod authors to specify compatibility of their mod versions with game versions."

For games where developers have allowed and properly configured access to past game versions, Steam Workshop mod authors can now upload multiple versions of the same mod, marking which game version each mod version is compatible with. The Steamworks API will also let developers query whether a user's game version and mod versions match up, and prompt the user when there's an incompatibility.

The Steamworks documentation says the new API features can even let Steam close the game when there's a mod and game version mismatch, switch and install the appropriate game version, and relaunch.

This does, of course, require both developers and mod authors to do the required version management and configuration. But if and when they do, it should be much simpler to keep playing on older game versions with our ideal mod setups when an update would otherwise put our saves in purgatory. My Crusader Kings dynasties are infinitely grateful.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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