You might be reading that headline and rolling your eyes, or it might make you angry. Well strap in buddy boy because we’re going on a roller coaster with another game industry punching bag. And this time we’re not talking about Randy Pitchford for once. No, we’re going to talk about the man being blamed for killing Fallout, Todd Howard.
During a recent interview with IGN, which can be seen in video form below, the topic turned to one of the more infamous decisions Bethesda has ever made. And yes, the topic eventually landed on the mess that was Fallout 76, but this is about something much older and dumber than that nonsense. This is about Horse Armor.
Some of you will remember back in 2006 when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out, it was a big deal. And along with the excellent story expansions, Bethesda also released a set of DLC that included armor for your steed in-game. The price point caused a huge amount of backlash when it was set at $2.50, as can be expected. Gamers across the globe are still angered by the idea to this day, citing it as one of the more prescient examples of overpriced microtransaction nonsense.
Well according to Howard, that price point was actually set much lower, but Microsoft had apparently insisted the price for the Horse Armor DLC be raised to be more in line with other DLC prices. The issue apparently centered on the fact that it would have been cheaper to buy this DLC over a paid Xbox Theme, something Microsoft was pushing heavily at the time for the Xbox 360.
But Todd Howard simply had a pretty blunt response to the whole controversy, People will buy anything.” Howard continued by acknowledging that this “does not mean that [they] should do it,” and he closed out by saying, “that sounds terrible”.
YIKES!
If you needed a new reason to be angry at Todd Howard, here you go. Or is it an old reason? Whatever. Point is that it’s not a good idea to treat your consumers like walking wallets with no willpower. And even though he walked back the more egregious interpretation, it’s still not a good thing to say about people giving you money regardless.
Microsoft already treated gamers like sex-obsessed slobs with their newly announced bodywash nonsense, and it seems like Bethesda couldn’t miss out on some idiocy.
