Important takeaways
- Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC is one of the game's most infamous controversies, priced at $2.50.
- Lead designer Bruce Nesmith reflects on the controversial DLC and admits it wasn't what players wanted.
- Despite negative reactions, the Horse Armor DLC became one of Bethesda's most popular packs, selling millions of copies and leading to free armor in Skyrim: Anniversary Edition.
Nearly twenty years later, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC remains one of the game's most infamous controversies. It was noted for being the first cosmetic DLC, featuring players in weapons for the high price of $2.50 for an item in a single-player game.
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With the controversy now well in the background, and cosmetic DLC a huge staple in the gaming landscape, Oblivion system designer and Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith reflected on that period in April 2006.
“Wow, what the hell are we thinking?”
Speaking to VideoGamer, Nesmith said the team wanted to start with “something small,” something the developer seemingly regrets. “Only in retrospect could you see that it wasn't what people wanted and we were basically thumbing their noses at them without realizing it,” he said.
Reaction to the DLC was overwhelmingly negative, something Nesmith says the team didn't expect, “Both Bethesda and Microsoft were caught off guard by the response to it, [we] didn't anticipate that at all.”
“It must have been in the millions, it must have been in the millions,”
But the negative sentiment did not have too much of a negative reaction. In 2016, Todd Howard mentioned that Horse Armor was one of the most popular DLC packs that Bethesda had ever released. Nesmith added further context to it.
Speaking of its sales, he said, “It must have been in the millions, it must have been millions,”
As time has passed and cosmetic DLC has become more common, Bethesda has learned to laugh at its past indiscretions. Howard previously said, “Horse armor isn't bad. I think horse armor is good”, and in 2021's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition, Bethesda released two sets of horse armor, Steel and Elven, for free, playing on Oblivion.
Set in Cyrodiil, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is an open world action RPG where you try to stop the Mythic Dawn cult from opening a portal to the aforementioned Oblivion. It was critically acclaimed, expanded on in Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles.
