I am sure everyone agrees by now that the items in the current Halo Infinite item shop are grossly overpriced for what you get, not to mention that bundles being forced upon players is a negative thing.
HOWEVER, it could have been so. much. worse. I recently started playing Valorant because my friends play it, and even compared to the current Halo Infinite store, the Valorant store is straight up ridiculous. It can cost more than $20 for a single weapon skin, which you then have to spend additional in-game earnable points to upgrade the skin or change its colors. Knives in Valorant cost about $50. 50 whole dollars for something you barely use to actually kill enemies. The shop also rotates every day so there is huge FOMO for paid skins.
While I can’t defend Halo’s monetization scheme, I now realize that we are in a decent position compared to other AAA games. The recent news that the Halo Infinite shop is changing to have better value for players makes me super happy, and I hope it leads to other game studios developing more player-friendly systems in the future.
Halo was a trendsetter once, and it can be one again.
There are games worse shops and there are games with better shops. Halo is chasing trends by going free to play, and adjusting prices won’t change that.