Bethesda can boast of being responsible for one of the most controversial DLCs in video game history. But despite there being a lot of excitement from the community at the time, the microtransaction proved to be a success.
What microtransaction is it? Anyone who has played Oblivion and ridden through the wide open world on horseback may be familiar with the controversial horse armor. But players couldn’t find them at one of the many dealers in the cities of Cyrodiil.
No, the horse armor was a paid DLC. And what a one. The purely cosmetic item cost €2.50 at the time, but had no use apart from its aesthetic value. It did not improve the horse’s defenses or help in any way.
This caused a major scandal. The community was outraged and there was a lot of incomprehension as to why money should be spent on such a useless microtransaction. But a former Bethesda developer reveals: Financially, the step was worth it.
For MeinMMO author Christoph Waldboth, Oblivion is the game that he returns to again and again once a year.
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A scandal back then, completely normal today
What does the developer say? Bruce Nesmith was involved as a quest designer on Oblivion and later led the development of Skyrim. In a conversation with Videogamer, he says that the horse armor was a great financial success.
According to him, it sold millions of copies, even though many players complained loudly about it. So from a financial perspective, it was worth the excitement. By the way, we didn’t expect the players’ reaction:
Both Bethesda and Microsoft were completely taken by surprise by the response, [wir] didn’t expect that at all. It was only in hindsight that you could see that this wasn’t what people wanted and that we were essentially thumbing our noses at them without realizing it.
Bruce Nesmith via Videogamer
The main problem, according to Nesmith, was that Bethesda was the first studio to sell such a microtransaction. Over the years, it has become completely normal to spend money on cosmetic items in addition to full price. Bethesda itself recently caused a stir at Starfield because a quest was offered for a fee.
The studio’s former head of marketing, Pete Hines, also thought that the principle of microtransactions wasn’t that bad:
People just want to feel like they’re getting a good deal. I’ll pay $3 for downloadable content, but it better be cool – and horse armor just isn’t cool. So if we had to do it again, I’d say we should either wait until later for the horse armor or do it cheaper.
Pete Hines via gamesindustry.biz
Were there more microtransactions for Oblivion? Yes, there were, and not too few. However, most of them were much more useful, such as a wizard’s tower in which players could live. With the horse armor, Bethesda has definitely gone down in video game history. According to Bruce Nesmith, there is no such thing as a perfect game: A Bethesda developer says: A release without bugs is impossible