First things first, with the slight decline in Halo sales plus practical most games using micro-transactions with publishers like Microsoft pushing them, having no micro-transactions (while sounding nice) can’t happen. Games are still $60 and yet more features and better visuals are being thrown in so we can’t ask 343 to make bigger and better Halo games and not fund them enough to pull that off. However, handled poorly, micro-transaction can also ruin a game. Map packs just won’t work because they split the player base and when a game like Halo Reach gets old enough, nobody ends up playing on those dlc maps anyway. While Halo 5’s req system was no Battlefront 2 situation, the fact that people could purchase war zone weapons and all the armor/vehicles/weapons/etc. were randomly generated like a slot machine, there wasn’t any sense of feeling special earning anything cause who cares if you got bucks helmet when you didn’t work for it or just spent money on it. Taking some inspiration from overwatch and other games examples of handling micro-transactions, I’ve thought of a way for 343 to make money while also not bogging down our experience and possibly making a progression system just as, if not better, than Halo Reach’s. It would be nice if it was cosmetic only, but I don’t mean locking all the armor behind a paywall. You could have all the armor be unlock able through level ups or purchased with in-game credits, but if you want certain variations like flame jobs, spray painted designs, cracked visors, weapon/vehicle skins, a knife on your shoulder, etc. you could either build req toward them or buy it. That way people still feel “a sense of pride and accomplishment” (little battlefront 2 pun for fun) by having them actually unlock all the base armor though playing the game, but if they want to decorate them they could either pay for them of maybe a system where the longer you use something the more unlocks you get like if I used the DMR while wearing Mark V, I could level up in a skill tree for the next weapon skin, DMR attachment, or Mark V decoration, but if I don’t want to go through the trouble, I can pay for a skill tree slot and skip to the next point on that skill tree. It’s great because it pushes us to try everything out, when you invest in-game/real world money you know what your going to get, and all the armors will have certain rarities so you won’t have someone who got Bucks helmet a lvl 3 while I get it at lvl143. You could also build off Halo Reach’s customization with various shoulders, wrist, knee, chest, visor, and helmet designs. I tell you what, I would grind endless all nighters just to unlock everything, but what do you guys think of this? Share this if this seems like the best possible way where we and 343 will be happy.
There’s an existing thread on MTX in future installments that you can use. Scroll down in GD to find it. Or use one of the existing wishlist threads.
Thanks.