Bethesda has poked fun at Oblivion's horse armour DLC controversy by offering it for free within Skyrim's Anniversary Edition.
If you're not sure where to start with the phrase "horse armour DLC controversy", let's get you caught up. Back when The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion launched, DLC wasn't such a common practise. We're talking about the Xbox 360 days here. Bethesda became infamous for offering one of the most pointless DLC packs to this day, cosmetic armour for your horse that cost 500 Microsoft Points.
Although that's sadly a pretty common occurrence now, back then it was considered pointless to pay for a skin in a single-player game, let alone for a horse. The term "horse armour" then became a meme to describe pointless add-ons and has been referenced a bunch of times since Oblivion's release.
Now, as reported by GamesRadar+, Bethesda has poked fun at the whole horse armour situation in Skyrim: Anniversary Edition. Going onto the Creation Club of the most recent re-release will give players the option to buy two different pieces of horse armour, Steel and Elven. However, they've been discounted by 100 percent to be completely free to buy.
Considering none of the other items on the Creation Club have been discounted so much, it's clearly a little wink from Bethesda making fun of the original horse armour DLC from all those years ago.
You can find the horse armour for yourself in the featured tab of the Creation Club. Download it from there, and then you can go onto Skyrim, visit any stable in the area and talk to the horse vendor nearby. The horse armour DLC adds a new dialogue choice that allows you to put armour on your horse. The armour will cost 500 Septims, which is yet another clear reference to it being 500 Microsoft Points back when they pulled the trick in Oblivion.
At least this set of horse armour won't be causing any controversies.