Bethesda appears to be pushing paid mods in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim again, with a new update for the Special Edition and Anniversary Edition on Xbox and multiple other platforms.
In a post on its official website, the developer announced 'Bethesda Game Studios Creations' - a new streamlined platform that reintroduces Skyrim’s "existing Mods, Creation Club items and all-new Creations under a single Creations menu". Most notably, creators can now also apply to the 'Bethesda Game Studios Verified Creator Program' and "set prices" for their creations:
"Creators can put up their own Creations for players to enjoy, or even apply to the Bethesda Game Studios Verified Creator Program to set prices for their Creations. That’s right: become a Verified Creator and you could earn a royalty for each of your Creations sold within Skyrim Special Edition."
This is optional, but for those who are interested, Bethesda has set up an application page for creators that goes into more detail about the program and process. A section of the FAQ also explains how exactly this is different from the Creation Club:
"With Creation Club, members were hired and paid as professional contract developers. Now, Verified Creators can be professionals who earn royalties directly from the sale of their Creations, with an easier path to releasing their work."
Unfortunately, it seems players are now encountering issues with the latest update which is breaking existing mods - and there's been some uproar on websites such as Steam and Reddit as well.
It should be noted that all of the old mods that were always free in Skyrim should still remain that way, so you don't need to worry about anything changing with those. It's also expected that this same new "Creations" platform will eventually be implemented in games such as Starfield, but Bethesda hasn't officially said anything about this just yet.