Oh, how things have changed. Fifteen years after gamers raised heck about horse armor in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bethesda is discounting the infamous DLC in Skyrim Anniversary Edition, as first reported by PC Gamer.
The horse armor DLC can be found in Skyrim's Creation Club menu. You should see both versions (steel and elven) pop up in the Featured tab for download. From there, restart your game and head to any stable in the region. Find the NPC who sells you horses and there will be new dialogue to acquire armor for your valiant steed. Choose which version you want, pay the kind stableman 500 Septim, and you've officially pimped out your ride.
It's funny to think that when Bethesda introduced Oblivion players to horse armor DLC, it only cost $2.50 (or 200 Microsoft Points), and many in the gaming community laughed at the notion of paying real money for cosmetic DLC in a single-player game. Nowadays, the term "battle pass" and "content roadmap" are par for the course, and gamers everywhere are paying much, much more than $2.50 for in-game items. According to US Gamer, Bethesda was simply the first third-party publisher to bite on Microsoft's idea to provide microtransactions on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
It wasn't even so much the fact that the DLC existed (Oblivion certainly didn't invent the idea for post-launch content), but the price point that riled people up. Check out old NeoGaf forum posts and you'll see people joking that next we'd get horse armor sponsored by Pepsi. Horse Armor quickly became a running joke in the video gaming community anytime a developer released DLC that seemed less-than-necessary.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition thankfully comes with much more than horse armor to celebrate the occasion. The re-release includes new questlines, weapons and armor from Morrowind, survival mode, and fishing mechanics. That's on top of all previously released content, Creation Club content, and more. Skyrim Anniversary Edition is out today.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/has three dollars.