Suggestions to Improve Battle Pass and the Progression System

Games Halo Infinite
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Introduction
The gaming industry and the way game publishers make money has greatly evolved over the last decade. The product life-cycle of a game can be extended far beyond what was traditionally possible (as is intended with Infinite) but there is no single path to success. Some games like Fortnight or Destiny focus on finite-experiences - they add and cut content on a seasonal basis, and if you miss some of the content or in-game events you will never see them again. Other games like Rocket League focus on the competitive e-sports aspect akin to a more traditional sports season like Football and basketball. All three of these games have had great success financially. In this thread, looking for ideas to share that improve the Halo Infinite Experience, but also take profits into account. How do we help 343 improve Infinite, but also improve their profits? This way they can continue offering us great content.

Ideas

  • Remove Challenge Swaps: These swaps make it really difficult to curate the player experience. For example, If 343 does want to require we make sentinel beam kills - put more sentinel beams on the map for the next week. Note - this requires that everyone has the same challenge. However, with more control over our player experience they can generally customize multiplayer to make it feel far more tailored on the week-to-week.

  • Increase Customization: Coatings need to apply to all armors. It’s also a requirement we can apply coatings to specific armor pieces (shins, arms, chest). A welcome addition would bring back the male/female spartans in addition to the existing gender neutral body type options - these added customizations will enable 343 to reach their goal of ultimate player expression.

  • Thematic Battle Passes: There is no need for there to be hundreds of different armors and weapon coatings in the first year of this game. Halo Reach had only 11 standard helmets, 8 shoulder pieces, 8 chest pieces. With those pieces alone we were able to create thousands of custom Spartan variations (5,362 is the number I found). In this community we often look to that game as the Gold standard of Halo player expression. The coatings/skins in Infinite in everything from weapons to vehicles to armor are all over the place. They want the first season to be Heroes of Reach, every single coating should be related to Reach then. Adjust for Season 2 Accordingly. This allows player expression, but also encourages players to pay for a season pass and earn what’s in fashion. Imagine, with an average amount of playtime you can obtain a Reach armor set, weapon or Vehicle skin, and AI. Let’s say S2 is Banished themed, then you want to prove your up to date and earn a Banished armor set, weapon or Vehicle skin.

  • Season Pass Purchases/ Subscriptions as Primary Income: Stop putting emphasis on payments for each customizable in-game item. Instead flesh out the Season Pass. If a player shows skill and puts in the time, they should be able to earn one or multiple armor sets, weapons or Vehicles skins, and AIs. 343 MUST PUT FOCUS ON A ONE TIME SEASON PASS PAYMENT THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE ADDITIONAL PURCHASING BEYOND THAT. They will make more money more sustainably if they have many repeat Season Pass Buyers rather than one time purchasers willing to spend $25 on a set of armor.

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You make some great points. The armor coatings would definitely feel more rewarding if you could mix and match them a bit. And the challenge idea is interesting because it is difficult to complete certain challenges sometimes that require you to use a certain weapon or play a certain mode and you have to just roll the dice and hope you get a map with that weapon/mode you need.

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I think the key here is to separate player progression from Spartan progression. This means give the player a rank to grind through (recruit and up) and then also give the character upgradeables (armor, paint, weapon skins). One is XP based, the other can be a combo or xp and challenges.

As 343, you leave out 75% of battle pass cosmetics from the free version.

This is so obvious it hurts.

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Suggestion: Ditch the F2P model and ditch the battlepass. 343 should put their time into making an actual progression/unlock system like we had with past Halo titles. (Not including Halo 5)

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Hm, what do you think about this. We have an actual progression/unlock system like Reach as part of the Base game. There are maybe 10 coatings and sets of armor that can be customized. This is a rank based system to grind through. If you are putting time in the game, other players will know by these armor variants. This would be the equivalent of H3 Samurai armor.

For Battle Pass, charge $25 USD, less grinding but same concept. By winning matches, earning medals, and completing challenges (these still need to be overhauled) you can claim some of the armor specific to that season. Make it easy enough so that each player can at least earn 1 set of armor and a coating. For dedicated players, they should be able to earn most of the skins, armors and coatings.

I don’t like the idea of coatings at all and it goes directly against 343’s supposed aim to allow ultimate player expression. However, the coatings could be unique to each slate of armors for the Battle Pass and should work among all of the armors in a Battle Pass. You could have classic reach, gilded, stealth, etc.

With this in mind, I stand by 343 removing direct purchases of any cosmetics players want. This will encourage users to not only buy the battle pass, but also play the game. Any piece of armor you see from a battle pass is earned just like in reach.

The question is what this looks like from a revenue perspective. How large is the player audience? On average how many players purchase a season pass? What does retention rate look like within number of players? (this we can reference other games with successful F2P models in the industry)

Also, let’s not forget that the campaign on its own cost $60 and is likely to have DLC. The multiplayer is a full additional stream of revenue

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