The “Horse Armor” downloadable content for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has become notorious as the premier example of bad DLC. It’s a pointless waste of money that gives something totally useful to a non-character you’ll barely use. And amazingly … people are still falling for it in the year 2011.
“In one respect everything we’ve done has done well, including the much maligned horse armor,” revealed Pete Hines. “I swear to you — I don’t have the report in front of me, but multiple people bought horse armour yesterday! For some inexplicable reason. It happened, I promise.
Hines added that good DLC needs a sense of value and timing in order to succeed: “Really what we try to find the sweet spot for is: what does it cost, what do they get, and — something that’s not often talked about, but that’s important to us — how long will it take us to get it out? We don’t want them having to wait forever to get something, so we try to find the right mix of time and expense and content that works, and what that formula will be down the road, I can’t say today for sure.”
Bethesda’s DLC efforts have been, on the whole, pretty damn good, but that 200 MS Point Horse Armor remains the very definition of bad content. At least for some people … the fact that others are still buying the thing proves that there is an audience for that sort of thing. Blows my mind.
