I’m not defending or attacking the system as it exists, but the reason that many people regard it as “predatory” is that it does employ tactics pioneered in the mobile games space which intentionally leverage impulsive and addictive personalities to the ends of maximizing revenue. I went down a YouTube rabbit hole about this a while back, and was truthfully surprised at just how intentional and “predatory” (designed to exploit) a lot of these decisions really are. Here’s a link to one of the most shockingly honest vids on the subject (haven’t watched it in quite a while so I can’t point to specific timestamps and details, but it’s well worth a watch if you want to get a look at how these profit models are designed).
https://youtu.be/xNjI03CGkb4
Basically, Infinite’s single most exploitative element is that it seems to be leveraging “FOMO” with timed-availability for rotational items. “You like X item in the store right now? You’d better grab it before the end of the day/week! There’s no knowing when it will become available again!”
Basically, that’s creating an illusion of scarcity (or maybe more accurately, just artificial scarcity) around digital items which have no intrinsic limitations around how many/often they are available. I’d also say that the prices are pretty high, not necessarily in comparison to other games in the F2P industry, but absolutely when compared to the comparatively massive amount of cosmetics included in the retail MSRP of prior Halo games (Reach being one of the better examples, included dozens of armors and attachments which could be colored at will and combined in thousands of different configurations for no additional monetary cost to the player, while Infinite charges ~$20 USD for basically a single set of armor which has seemingly arbitrary limitations around how the player can even use it (core restrictions)).
I honestly find the FOMO tactic employed in Infinite to be less egregiously exploitative than Halo 5’s REQ MTX’s, which were basically slot machine lootboxes which encouraged players to buy again and again until they by chance recieved their desired cosmetics (and a ton of Pay-To-Win Warzone reqs along the way). That system is seeing its share of defenders in retrospect, who cite that at least you could earn currency to buy REQ packs in-game, which is at least one area where it has Infinite beat.
Ultimately, I don’t understand or agree with the perspective that 343i is being disproportionately greedy or predatory with the way that Infinite employs its MTX. They’re participating in an industry trend away from an archaic profit model, whether returning fans like it or not. Many of us don’t like it, though, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that a big stink is being made about it online, especially with longtime fans of the series. Again, these MTX models are intentionally designed to be exploitative, and the difference between that and “predatory” is just a very narrow gap in perception for any given person.
I’d personally love to see 343i become industry leaders in proving that a less exploitative model can also be very profitable. It’s exciting to hear that they’re examining the store right now, and I hope they improve it. Lowering the prices a bit and expanding the possibilities for using purchased cosmetics across cores would add a tremendous amount of value, and doing away with as many of the artificial scarcity elements as possible by expanding how many items are available at once and how long they are available would allow for players to engage with the store in a more “fair” way- selecting pieces they personally enjoy out of a larger variety and purchasing without arbitrary pressure coming from the implication that they must buy NOW.
I don’t expect the store to move entirely away from exploitative design, but I’ll absolutely celebrate if moving as far away from that as possible.