Microsoft was massive back then too and interacted with a lot of various studios. They notoriously forced Valve to charge money for their free Left 4 Dead dlc because they thought it would set a bad precedent.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if some Microsoft employee inspired the horse armor dlc.
Microsoft didn’t own Bethesda back then, am I missing something?
DLC was originally released for Xbox 360, so Microsoft might have some influence here, though I wouldn’t underestimate the greediness of Bethesda.
Microsoft was massive back then too and interacted with a lot of various studios. They notoriously forced Valve to charge money for their free Left 4 Dead dlc because they thought it would set a bad precedent.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if some Microsoft employee inspired the horse armor dlc.