The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Bethesda Game Studios released Oblivion on March 20, 2006, for PC and the months-old Xbox 360, with a PlayStation 3 version following in March 2007. Patrick Stewart lent his voice to Emperor Uriel Septim VII — dead within the opening hour — and Sean Bean played Martin, the reluctant heir you spend the game protecting. For a generation of players it was the first true next-generation moment: emerging from the tutorial sewer into the sunlit, seamless province of Cyrodiil, free to follow the main quest or wander off for a hundred hours of guild intrigues, Oblivion gates, and burglary.

It was a blockbuster — 1.7 million copies shipped in the first three weeks, over 3 million by January 2007 — and it collected Game of the Year honors from Spike TV's Video Game Awards and role-playing-game-of-the-year laurels from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Its Radiant AI system, which let NPCs pursue their own schedules and goals rather than stand rooted in place, produced both genuine wonder and plenty of the game's beloved jank — while the Adoring Fan, the bug-eyed groupie who trails your arena champion and refuses to stay dead, became a meme all his own.

Then there's the horse armor. On April 3, 2006, Bethesda sold a cosmetic armor kit for your horse as downloadable content priced at 200 Microsoft Points — about $2.50 — and players revolted at paying real money for so little. "Horse armor" became the industry's permanent shorthand for microtransaction excess, which only grew funnier as the practice conquered gaming anyway. Oblivion went on to an estimated 9.5 million copies sold, paved the road to Skyrim, and got a full remaster in 2025.