The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion’s horse armor led to a billion-dollar video game cosmetic industry

The mall has been defunct, but we still live with its ghost.

American commerce has fallen to the ground, a victim of rapid online expansion and competition. Many shopping centers are now empty, or have been converted into nostalgic vehicles for Amazon deliveries. Corporate mismanagement and consumer disinterest drive out the storied brands. The new competitors are fast and they burn out just as quickly. Survival depends on their ruthlessness.

Each marketplace on the internet is its very own digital mall. It has never been possible to play more videogames, nor have they ever been made available in more budget-friendly ways. Budgets are increasing and so titles need to be able to deliver on corporate expectations. Every game that has an online component uses its own internal economy. Single-player titles also use opaque methods to extract cash. When a developer announces that a game won’t have microtransactions, it’s greeted with an outpouring of tearful praise.

2006 saw the dawning of this increasingly monetized world. It was an easy piece of downloadable content that symbolised the best and worst of the future: horse armor.

Sega Channel was a WebTV-like service, which operated after the Genesis end date. Satellaview, an exclusive SNES add-on for Japan, marked the beginning of home console downloadable content. Although the games were limited by satellite technology and memory constraints, these early variants of the subscription-based all-you’re-can-play model would be in fashion for many years. Sega made some progress with the Dreamcast but it was Microsoft and Xbox Live that cemented the online console’s place in the mainstream.

Microsoft has solidified many economic models still affecting gaming with the Xbox 360 and online services. While Sony’s storefront used local currency and Nintendo’s point system was tagged to the cent, Xbox Live points were meant to reduce credit card fees but mostly served to obscure prices. Speaking to 1UP, 360 group project manager Aaron Greenberg said, “If we do this in bulk, we don’t have to burden the consumer with the transaction fees, or ourselves or publishers. It’s about keeping infrastructure costs down and I know sometimes it’s frustrating because you end up with odd points, but we don’t have any plans to change that.” Despite that denial, Microsoft eventually ditched the point system in 2013. Four hundred points are the electronic equivalent of the carnival ticket. There were only a few free and paid downloadable content in the initial wave. Though it wasn’t the first, one piece of DLC acted as a symbol for everything that seemed wrong with the system.

Bethesda Games made the post-release content a key part of their titles, whether it was through expansion packs or maintenance that reaches back as far back as patches. Arena: The Elder Scrolls. The company was inspired by its RPGs to create downloadable content. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. At a talk during the 2015 Game Developers Conference, Bethesda senior designer Joel Burgess said, “Back in 2005, developers were wondering, well, What is DLC? It is difficult to define. How do we expect to know what people even want to play or what it’s going to cost? […] We didn’t even know what we should charge.”

Studio went with a simple design as market testing. You can’t say the Horse Armor Pack wasn’t exactly what it said on the tin: a few sets of armor which increased your steed’s health alongside a simple quest. Instantaneously, the reaction was overwhelming.

Bethesda

Under a Major Nelson blog with the extremely 2006 title of “Pimp your (Oblivion) ride,” comments ran mostly negative. Though most weren’t against DLC, the small offering and relative expense were the largest complaints. Some lamented that they couldn’t even purchase the pack in their countries; others questioned the point of purchasing cosmetics in a single-player game. One jeered that horses were a “women’s hobby,” a quality that might have contributed to the excess level of outrage. There were defenders, those who compared it to selling ringtones or cellphone wallpaper, extraneous customizations that didn’t have any real effect on the core experience. The market bears what the market will, and if people didn’t buy it, corporations would stop selling it.

Most common fear wore out over time. This was the fragmentation of games. It meant that the entire package would be broken up into smaller pieces. This would allow companies to release half-baked games and then hope that they can salvage the titles after launch. This was a bad sign priced at $1.99 PC, or 200 Xbox Live points for console.

Horse armor was the first to open the floodgates. The industry soon followed. Online integration began as a small effort, but it was quickly embraced by the entire generation. Compare Grand Theft Auto 4To 5A free-roaming map, and some modes against the goliath GTA Online. DLC has become a standard feature. Roadmaps are an expected part of a title’s post-launch; development never ends. Some games, which were released in the early days without an in-game economy, had their systems retrofitted later. Team Fortress 2It was a sophisticated hat simulator. The skin economy was added to Counter-Strike, creating a small industry that provides gambling services and headaches for Valve.

The more shameless companies don’t hide the intent behind some of their cosmetics. Let’s take a look at these pictures. Dead or alive 6, the most recent of Koei Tecmo’s cleavage-based fighters. The School Uniform Set, which includes 18 schoolgirl costumes, is one of many DLC pieces. It retails at $24.99. While the cost of purchasing all the schoolgirl costumes is relatively low, the School Uniform Set costs $24.99. It’s clearly a ploy by those who love dressing their waifs, and appeals to obsessive mania. Phantom Thread via sexy ninja aficionado.

According to the NPD Group, industry analysts as of 2021 60% percent of non-mobile game spendingYou can download content or make microtransactions and subscribe to the site. If those commenters on Major Nelson’s blog are still playing games, they’ve likely bought DLC, if not turned their opinion about it around. If paid cosmetics weren’t popular, they wouldn’t gross what they do. A few dollars can be all that is needed to reach an artistic goal. As in fashion and games, there is always the question: Can you afford to be beautiful?

Gaming and fashion share many similarities. Fashion is the focus of the day. Profit for corporate profits is the ultimate goal. The customer finds himself at the crossroads between patron or rube. The ecosystem of gaming’s last decade is marked by the microtransaction, while fast fashion disrupts its industry for the worse, with its infringement on original designs and massive environmental footprint. Both are driven by the consumer who adjusts to changing environments, much like a fish that is thrown into more monetized waters.

Shein, a fast-fashion company that started as a Chinese womanswear store before expanding into international markets in the middle of 2010. Its low prices and cultural appeal of TikToks haul videos (in which users proudly show off their dozens of ordered pieces) helped it to become a global brand. Fashion Nova and companies like it are often accused of plundering from smaller designers. Yet, the customer base will overlook any infringement or questionable workmanship in exchange for savings. It is not clear when Fortnite first appeared, no one imagined it a cultural phenomenon, a third-person shooter themed into a de facto global children’s playground. It copied the battle royale format. PUBGEpic Games was free to use, and earned the country’s gross domestic product.

Fortnite’s success marked another turning point, a symbol of how a game could ride trends and fandoms to profit without an initial cost of entry. Epic was able to take over all IP through Skins, allowing them to create the ultimate crossover. Goku uses his sniper rifle to hit a Griddy. Everyone has a good time. Epic sells physical boxes for $20, which are purely cosmetic DLC coupons. This is a great stocking stuffer and a quick way to get a pair of digital socks. As juvenile social pressure has existed for kids to get involved, there is always been the knockoff kid in sneakers that looks like the original no-skin. There are many online action games that have similar aesthetics, and offer monetization options. Market-oriented, free-to-play online service games are at their worst fast fashion disposable corporate visions that aim to drain income from a revolving doors of users.

PlayStation has its own section for free-to play games, which is advertised as one of four pillars. Sony’s multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Bungie was done in part for the studio’s expertise in live service titles. Like Destiny 2Many live-service games which were initially free have been made completely free of charge, owing to the appeal of a larger player base contributing to their economies. Subscription services can be used to make certain games free of charge. Marvel’s AvengersThe poster child of unnecessary live services implementations, which can be found both on PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass.

An online service game may burn faster than you think. It can fail to find an audience despite a publisher’s pedigree, like Ubisoft’s Hyper Scape. Consolidation in the sector can lead to it falling prey to the increasing pressures of competition. Spellbreak. Although the battle royale-styled Avatar was well received, it was closed down by Blizzard when they purchased the studio. World of Warcraft. Marvel’s Avengers lives in an awkward state between life and death, seemingly profitable enough to continue development despite a disastrous launch, yet thrown into limbo by publisher Square Enix’s sale of developer Crystal Dynamics. Even Rockstar isn’t immune to its own expectations, content to let Red Dead OnlineCompared to siblings, languish GTA Online.

These items are lost when these gaming sites close down. The Shein pieces might become worn after just a couple of uses. A live service game will take all your purchase to the grave. NFTs are being proposed as a solution. They complete the fast fashion metaphor and add an environmental burden to digital purchase. These people make false claims regarding interoperability among games and the ability to transfer your items between titles. Ubisoft implemented NFT functionality. Ghost Recon BreakpointThis was the first major mainstream video game company to promote the blockchain to an unwilling audience. It fit perfectly with Ubi’s use of the Tom Clancy franchise, a posthumous fantasy of neoconservative spycraft as filtered through a European capitalist viewpoint resulting in philosophically hollow exercises in technical craft. Ubi abruptly ended all active development on the game after its implementation fell apart.

Image: Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft

A compromise is the only way to ensure that game capitalization’s future exists. Negative sentiment and regulation have led to the end of loot boxes. The battle pass/cash shop combination will take their place. OverwatchIts sequel. Most online games offer a grindable in-game currency alongside a premium one, a series of endless coins and gems and crystals meant to play the old carnival game of disguising money’s worth. Players with more time and money can earn content that others may pay for.

Paid cosmetics are a necessity in order to keep games afloat. This is because even months later, many titles go on sale for huge discounts. Everyone knows games have a higher value than their sales and that the economy is lopsided. Perhaps SNK was correct in those golden Neo Geo days. Every game has a value of $250. The “serious gamer,” ever the ascetic, can simply ignore that store tab and go about their day.

Some revel in this market. Cosmetics are often used as payloads in lore and patriotic celebrations. They can also be used to make nostalgic calls or even pornographic material. Skin reveals are a popular game that can be viewed millions of times. The right cosmetic becomes a treasured object, that one shirt you always wear, that hoodie you won’t let anyone borrow.

As for the horse armor, it’s no longer available for individual purchase on Steam, folded into the Game of the Year edition without even a mention in the promotional copy. However, you can still find the Xbox 360 port on the Microsoft Store. OblivionAs it has always stood. Horse armor still available for purchase at $2.49 using Xbox Live Points. This conversion represents a one cent depreciation. It’s like an old toy that you found in an old store. The price sticker never lies.