The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Interview

GamesIndustry.biz has published an interview with Bethesda Softworks’ Pete Hines about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, its Shivering Isles expansion, downloadable content, and more.

Q: You took some criticism for the first downloadable content for Oblivion – particularly the horse armour pack, which some felt was overpriced. Do you think it was unfair? Was it a result of working with a system that was still being established?

A: Yes and no. We didn’t have any choice. We were the first ones to do downloadable content like that – some people had done similar things, but no one had really done additions where you add new stuff to your existing game. So we knew we were going to take some flak whatever. We could have put that out for 25 cents and people would have still been up in arms.

But we had some other things we were working on and were able to come out with new things that were better conceived and at a better price point, things like the wizard’s tower. We found that the price isn’t really the issue. People just want to feel like they’re getting a good deal. I’ll pay $3 for downloadable content, but it better be cool – and horse armour just isn’t cool. So if we had to do it over again, I’d say either we should wait until later for the horse armour or do it for less.

The flipside is, that thing sold hundreds of thousands of copies and still sells every day. It’s not like people don’t want it, because it still sells. I think on the whole people think what we’ve done is of interest and good value.

The nearly worthless Horse Armor plug-in has sold hundreds of thousands of copies?! That has to easily be the biggest profit to development time ratio the industry has ever seen.