Bethesda Officially Gets The Last Laugh As Horse Armor DLC Returns For ‘Oblivion Remastered’
While Bethesda’s decision initial decision to offer paid ‘Horse Armor’ DLC for the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is regularly cited as the sparking point for the modern video game industry’s egregious adoption of microtransactions, the fact that the developer chose to bring the digital bauble back for their new Oblivion Remastered sadly confirms that ‘player principles’ are often times no match for ‘corporate greed’.
For younger readers it may be hard to imagine but in the before times, a given game release would see a developer include the full extent of a given game’s contents, from its story, to alternate costumes, to multiplayer rosters, on the retail disc/cartridge.
And yes, while some games would receive expansion packs, as seen with Starcraft: Brood War or the numerous releases of Street Fighter II, these add-ons differ from modern concepts of DLC due to providing players with significant gameplay additions and improvements, such as mechanic tweaks or full-blown campaigns rather than either simple cosmetics or content that should have been included (like with Mass Effect 3 and its true ending).
However, that all changed in 2006, when in response to Rare offering a pack of 10 Christmas-themed skins for their Xbox exclusive action title Kameo: Elements of Power for a total of 200 ‘Microsoft Points’ (a now-defunct digital currency whose exchange rate worked out to 40 MP per USD, making the pack’s price $2.50), Bethesda decided to push the boundaries of players’ patience and charge their players the same price for the option to equip one’s horse with slightly-health-boosting armor in Oblivion.
Given the stark discrepancy between the actual value of the two offerings, the Horse Armor DLC was met not with excitement, but rather widespread condemnation.
In defending the DLC’s release, then-Bethesda VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines told the press, “We tried to find a spot for [the download] that fit with what other things were out there. A Theme [for the Xbox UI’s dashboard] costs 150 points. The Kameo thing was 200. We’re trying to find the right spot that fits.
“We’re not even a day into this right now,” he added. “We’ve got a couple more [downloads] we’re working on finishing… We want to put some different things out there and find out what folks want and what they don’t want. These are optional things, not requirements, so if you don’t want to get them you don’t have to.”
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Sadly, when presented with this option, it seems enough players were still willing to pay extra to keep their digital horses protected, as fast forward roughly twenty-years and the concept of specifically predatory DLC has become so embedded in the industry’s DNA that an entire genre – gacha – revolves around the practice of essentially gambling for new content.
Given that their 2006 effort pretty much set the stage for this widespread acceptance, it should come as no surprise that Bethesda chose to take a victory lap and revive the Horse DLC for Oblivion Remastered.
Admittedly, the situation is not exactly the same, as the base Remastered release does include the original Horse Armor DLC pack.
But in its place, Bethesda has instead introduced locked a pair of unique Horse armor, player armor, and weapon sets behind the game’s Deluxe Edition upgrade, which for an extra $10 will grant access to a new line of quests to unlock said armor and weapon sets, as well as a digital artbook and soundtrack collection.
To be fair, it’s not entirely Bethesda’s fault that the industry has become so obsessed with microtransactions – after all, as human greed has shown time and time again, if it wasn’t them, some other developer would have inevitably stepped up and beaten them to the title of ‘Modern DLC Grandfather’.
But regardless, players can still be rightfully frustrated by the entire thing because at the very least, Bethesda did not have to help accelerate the practice’s widespread adoption. At the very least, they could have instead chosen to set a less egregious standard for others to jump off from.
Alas, they did not, and now we’re stuck paying hand over fist to hop off the Battle Bus dressed like Spider-Man.
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