See the spoiler for my TL;DR
As we know, Battle Royale modes have become a staple in recent shooters, and from a business perspective, it makes complete sense. Not only is popular demand extremely high, but the microtransactional potential is extraordinary. So, the developers make a lot of money, and the buyers are happy.
However, Halo fans are averse to a Battle Royale mode, and I get it. I’ve seen two major arguments against it:
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Infinite will be microtransaction-heavy. We already know that microtransactions will be a part of Infinite, but let’s be honest, they could be a lot worse. A BR mode will almost certainly bring a lot of microtransactional baggage with it. This would upset a lot of us, including myself. - 343i is continuing to “go mainstream.” This issue plagued Halo 4, Halo 5, and to smaller degree, Reach. 343i seemed to be more focused on appealing to a general audience rather than retaining the gameplay elements that made earlier games unique. At the moment, we’re hearing rumors that Infinite will feature a massive-scale BTB experience, which is awesome because Infinite would be delivering a unique experience that caters to its long-term fans. Contrarily, including a Battle Royale is just another example of the “mainstream” mentality that hurt the past few games.Neither of these arguments are convincing to me. I’ll address each one:
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Microtransactions won’t be necessary to pay the map designers. One primary reason to include microtransactions is to compensate for the labor hours consumed by map designers. You can imagine how pricey this could get considering the time it takes to develop maps that are battle royale-scale However, these costs could be cut significantly if the developers repurposed segments of Infinite’s campaign instead of developing maps from scratch. I think a lot of us would enjoy these repurposed campaign levels, and 343i would have far less impetus for incorporating aggressive microtransactions. - Going mainstream isn’t always bad from a gameplay perspective. Halo has a perfect sandbox for Battle Royale, and like I just mentioned, vast potential for fun maps. There’s a lot of room for intriguing gametypes, too. Sadly, many Halo fans seem to equate “going mainstream” with “needless pandering,” but the two aren’t always related. Honestly, I could talk for hours on end about the endless gameplay possibilities that a Battle Royale mode would bring to Halo. If “going mainstream” makes me that excited, I can’t be opposed to it.With all of this being said, I think Halo would be better off without a Battle Royale. At this point, these modes are very common, so even if 343i can develop the best one out there, it may not get the attention it deserves. This is a basic business principle; having the best product matters very little unless it’s rare and hard to imitate. At this point, it’s probably too late for 343i to develop a competitive Battle Royale. Thankfully, I’ve heard rumors that 343i is developing a enhanced version of BTB with much larger maps, and this seems like a better option. Not only does this mode sound more fun to me, but with Halo’s unique sandbox, this kind of experience would be very rare and very difficult to replicate. However, as a fan, I’d be very excited for a Battle Royale mode, and I’m surprised that very few fans share that sentiment.
EDIT: My apologies for yet another Battle Royale thread. Apparently I’m not the only one thinking about it.
TL;DR: I understand that fans are scared about aggressive microtransactions and Halo becoming too mainstream, but Halo has a lot of opportunities to cut back on microtransactions and deliver a unique Battle Royale experience that doesn’t feel mainstream. From a business point of view, I don’t think a Battle Royale mode is a great idea, but as a fan, I’d be hyped for it.