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'You're all making fun of it and yet you buy it': Skyrim and Oblivion vet on Bethesda's horse armor, and how the dev 'didn’t know what the hell it was doing at the time'
Bruce Nesmith, former Bethesda game designer, reflects on the controversy surrounding Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC, arguing that its success paved the way for today's widespread acceptance of cosmetic microtransactions in online games, highlighting the evolution of gaming industry's approach to DLC.
Former Bethesda game designer Bruce Nesmith never expected everyone to be so angry about Oblivion's Horse Armor DLC when it released 18 years ago. I mean, it's mostly just a cool outfit for your horse. But Nesmith suggests that "part of the Horse Armor story is you’re going to make mistakes when you’re the first one in the water on something like that."
In a recent interview, Nesmith tells VideoGamer that Bethesda must have sold millions of horse armors, “and that was kind of a head shaker for us: you’re all making fun of it and yet you buy it," he says.
It had its merits. “One of the things about Horse Armor that you have to remember is Bethesda, I believe, was the very first company to do downloadable content expansions,” Nesmith said. “Nobody had done that before for the platforms. We literally pioneered that. And so Bethesda didn’t know what the hell it was doing at the time.”
Now, things are different. In the early 2000's, some people bought Oblivion's health-boosting Horse Armor begrudgingly, and even many of them spoke of it as a ridiculous and useless expense. In 2024, though, plenty of avid gamers hardly hesitate to buy another skin for, say, their League of Legends main, even as the gaming industry decides what its ideal relationship with microtransactions should be.
"“I think… you can thank online games for a much stronger interest in costume-related DLCs,” Nesmith argues. “Things that are purely visual or audio for you character, they’re not gameplay-related, that’s become more and more accepted when you have a game where you’re playing against other people and other people will see it."
Whatever the future holds, there's one thing that remains constant: the intoxicating appeal of horse armor. People are still purchasing it for $2.50 on the Xbox storefront, where it has a whopping 4.8 out of 5 stars across 60 user reviews.
"This is the greatest DLC ever created in video game history," said one review from 2022. "Do not play Oblivion without first purchasing this DLC. It is ESSENTIAL to experience the full package." Time heals all wounds.
Nesmith also recently commented that "Bethesda games could have a higher degree of polish," but reckoned some jank "could be forgiven."