Just in case you never played Oblivion, here’s a little backstory. Bethesda announced that they were releasing content that could be used in the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion, and gamers were immediately excited over the prospect of their favorite game getting new areas. However, while Bethesda did release a few new areas, they also sold another add-on: Horse Armor. What does horse armor do? Nothing. It makes your horse look cool. Many gamers bought the armor thinking that it would actually do something, then were thwarted by Xbox Live’s “no refund policy”. Read more to see Bethesda’s top 10 download list and an analysis.

From Bethesda’s Blog

1. Wizard’s Tower

2. Thieves Den

3. Mehrunes Razor

4. Spell Tomes

5. Vile Lair

6. The Orrery

7. Knights of the Nine

8. Shivering Isles

9. Horse Armor

10. Fighter’s Stronghold

I did like a few of these add-ons. For instance, I loved Mehrunes Razor. It was a fun little hour or so quest that has a good ending, and you get a cool sword out of it. Also, the Mage Tower was a pretty fun place to live, and was stocked with all sorts of goodies for your character. But Horse Armor? That’s probably the biggest scam in the history of micro-transactions. It should have been patched into the game, much less sold for 200 Microsoft Points!

• A breakdown for you faithful Gamer Limit readers
  • Horse Armor was Released: on 4/3/2006
  • 200 Microsoft points translates into $2.50 per armor sold
  • If Horse Armor continues to sell “everyday” like Bethesda claims, that means they make roughly $2737.5 in April of 2009 off of an add-on that does nothing
  • This figure is only accounting for 1 horse armor sold per day, which we all now is on the extremely low side

Source: Bethesda Blog