The Truth, No Matter How Bad It Hurts

Games Halo Infinite
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Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach. Four legendary games that changed the face of shooters forever and had an impact so large that even non-gamers knew the titles. In the early 2000’s, Halo followed the same formula for content and monetization that was widely popular at the time. You pay $60 for the game, and you pay additionally for any new maps that get added into the game, roughly $80-$100 in total depending on what DLC it came with. So any new content that game to these games, you would have to fork up cash to access it. In some cases with games back then, it wouldn’t even let you play unless you had bought the extra DLC.
Fast forward to Halo Infinite. The game is free to play, and any new maps and modes and weapons and vehicles are free to access as well. The difference being, most of the cosmetics are monetized. The Battlepass is $10, shop items are anywhere from $5 to $10. Other than that…? Nothing. The only costs in the game are what You want to buy, when you want to buy it. So if customization isn’t your thing you could play for 100% free. Or, if you’d rather deck out your Spartan, you can buy whatever you like from the store or get the Battlepass. Even the events are completely free aside from what you force yourself to buy.

I know which system i’d prefer. Being able to pick and choose what to buy and enjoying the game anywhere, crossplay, cross-save for free is incredible especially with gameplay being this smooth.

I think the real root of the issue here is that the prices in the store generally being expensive and the progression feeling too slow for many leads to frustrations to many. And the biggest thing is, many many people fail to understand that game development, even the simplest thing, takes time, money and resources to create and fix. It’s not just a switch. Even something as seemingly simple as adding a Slayer playlist, or changing the prices in the store, or adding a career progression, this stuff takes money and time and TESTING to release. One bad string of code and the whole thing needs to be looked at and redone.

343 Industries, unlike some other companies, has heard and acknowledged your feedback and are working their -Yoink!- off to get the fix out to you as soon as possible. So why is everyone still raving mad?? Do some meditation or something, man. Calm down. What happened to the days when people played video games to have fun and relax? Now we’re treating these devs like slaves and less than human, giving them impossible expectations and threatening the lives of those who aren’t even responsible.

And of course it’s important to provide feedback, but yelling at 343 Industries to fix progression after they’ve already explained how they’re going to fix progression isn’t helping anyone. That’s not feedback. You keep this up and 343 will end up becoming one of the companies that doesn’t listen to fans because all they hear is BS.

And one more thing- If you believe that Halo Infinite is being used as a cash grab, you are a deluded fool. That’s like getting mad at McDonald’s for having a buy-one-get-one deal on Big Macs because you feel like they’re forcing you to buy a big mac. When in reality you’re a spoiled brat who’s too used to mom and dad buying you everything that you feel like you need everything for free. You don’t need everything, and if you want it for free you need to grind in-game for it and wait for the events.

I can guarantee that there will be at least a few people that comment on this saying something like “Stop defending 343”, “Number company bad”, “You’re an idiot for liking this game”. If you fall under that category please refrain from even commenting and move on, as your opinion is less than useful in this situation.

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$4.49-$89.99
Unless you meant just cosmetics for sale.
There are no individual pieces of armor for sale that I have seen. Everything is technically a bundle of some sort, and they range from $4.49 - $17.99 with gamepass.

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Wait, did you really just not include Halo: CE on that list??

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But even that $5 is so much better than what other free games are doing as far as price goes. I do agree that alot of the shop stuff with the exception of the $5, could be cheaper. Anything over $10 would have to be something huge or special to warrant that much.

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I started on CE, I didn’t include that one because I was specifically talking about the games with Xbox Live. Don’t worry I love Combat Evolved to death lol

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I think most people just want better value and wouldn’t be complaining if that were the case.
We will see what 343i does to address this but hiding behind F2P and it being a business decision isn’t encouraging to me. Anubis armor bundle on sale right now is $17.99
Everything in the bundle is lackluster IMO, and I would never buy it. Probably not even for what I consider reasonable. It’s the type of armor that I would be disappointed in unlocking since I know I wouldn’t wear it.

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Ok, I see that now. Sorry, I read that first sentence and I couldn’t get past it.

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The only thing I disagree with, is the part about changing the prices in the store isn’t a flip of a switch. Actually… that one is a flip of a switch. They could absolutely change the prices in the store in an instant, if they so desired.

Now if you’re saying they won’t because market analysis, cost-benefit, other financial buzz words, etc. then ok. But to say they can’t is wrong.

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Right, and I would agree that almost $20 for an armor set is a little much. If it was some Legendary set that was exotic-badass looking, sure. But not Anubis. But I’ve seen some people wear it still, it was an old favorite from halo 5 for many. Stuff like that needs to be looked at price wise i’d say.

@D_dawgy Fair point, and that’s another big part of trying to figure all this out is the compromise. We as players want to feel like we’re getting a fair deal for our money, and 343 doesn’t want to feel like they’re getting the short end of the stick when it comes to pricing. Once we find that nice middleground I feel like things will improve. The more people feel like they’re getting a good deal, the more people will spend on the game if that makes sense. They just need to figure out how to make it happen and implement it.

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For someone who isn’t on game pass, and whose my US state has the highest sales tax in the nation (Yay Tennessee and its almost 10% sales tax!) Something advertised as $20 is more like $22. I’m also a college student. I’m not struggling, but why should I spend $22 on Anubis when I can buy an indie/sale game instead? I’m fine with coatings between armor, vehicles, and weapons being separated. but $16.50 for 2 coatings (one armor and cross-vehicle) and country horns on a warthog? $8 for a squirt-gun bulldog coating, teal/white armor and a stance?! Even the $5 stuff is too much for me.

I’m of the opinon that the shop items should not cost more than the battle pass. The battlepass is meant to be the big ticket item. That is what you want people to buy again and again. Honestly, as long as progression gets fixed, I’m okay with that being closer to $12 or $15. But if the battlepass is $10, then I feel like at most, I should spend $8 on a whole armor/coating set. the $15 vehicle coatings at about $5, single coatings/emblems should be like $3, swap/boost packs at $2. Key words “At most”

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That is a really good point. The Splintered Desert Bundle, to be fair, does come with a boatload of stuff. But it is strange how a bundle of a few items is more than the entire Battlepass.

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Dude! Don’t say that, they’ll just increase the price of the battle pass!

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It only looks like a boat load though because they split up the vehicle coating across all the vehicles. But its one coating. I argue two because I’m fine with armor and vehicles being separated. They do the same with the emblems and shoulder pieces. Its more money/slots for the same item. I’m surprised they don’t do that with the knee pads too.

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I understand where u are coming from, since many items in the shop are looking underwhelming. But separate skins are often as or more expansive than a battle pass in all of the big free to play games

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Personally I’d rather pay full price for the game than have the multiplayer F2P bombarded with microtransactions. I bought the Halo XSX so it wouldn’t matter to me if it wasn’t free but I’d still pay the full price if I didn’t have the console. I feel like I get more of my monies worth paying £10 for DLC maps than £10 for an armour bundle.

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yawn*

/20chararactersasdklasd

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The biggest competition, Fortnite and COD Warzone, are comparable in price, but you can earn vbucks and cod-points in game. That helps with some of it. You can’t do that in Infinite.

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That’s true. Together with the challenges it feels like 343 tried their on take with their battle pass. I mean, it gives you nice Armour and such, but it didn’t really worked out and they partly already adjusted it. But I don’t think think we will be able to earn in game currency in this pass anymore. Maybe in season 2, as they said they prolonged season 1 to may 2022 to have more time to prepare stuff for season 2 like the numbers of items etc.

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Yup. Like, I knew ODST would be locked behind one of the passes no matter what, so I was ready to drop money on that particular one. I just didn’t know we would get it right off the bat with Reach so I got it.

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Why are people mad? A mixture of an over-inflated sense of entitlement backed by some legit complaints on the systems in place and an appeal to nostalgia. Okay, maybe not everyone and maybe not that much, but people do forget the nuance of all these things.

Okay so the biggest complaint I’m seeing is the pricing on market items, which imo is absurdly expensive. In Halo 3 $10 would buy you three new maps, here it takes $20 to but one set of armor. It’s a little much if I’m being honest. Take that and the fiasco with the battlepass progression (which at least has a band-aid atm) and also the stigma with microtransactions for good measure creates a…less than favorable backlash. And I get it, I was pretty vocal at my displeasure of the system, especially the battle pass.

However, people always forget that large MP games like this cost money to maintain servers, bug fixes, pay employees so that they can eat, and they do have to make sure the game remain profitable to satisfy investors (which btw, if you have a savings account, 401K, mutual fund, or IRA, by investor I mean you ). 15 years ago you had online subscriptions and expansions that would cover the cost, but as OP pointed out (and I’m glad someone said it, it’s a point that’s too often forgotten) these expansions in turn created a system that usually locked players out from each other since not everyone had them, thus reducing player counts and hurting the game long-term.

The free-to-play model has its own problems, but it does solve those issues so long as maps and game modes are released universally along with the base game. And while I do think the prices in Infinite are a bit much, one thing I do like about this game that no one is pointing out it that there are no lootboxes. No online RNG slot machines that you spend ten bucks on to get a handful of emojis, tag lines, and a skin for a character that you hate. I REALLY do commend 343 for keeping that crap out of here especially in a F2P game. You pay ten bucks for the battle pass and you can unlock items from the season, and the store will cycle between different armors and skins. It’s not perfect and needs work, but it’s not nearly as predatory as many games out there. They could’ve charged us full price for the game and still included lootboxes and RNG (cough Overwatch cough). I’m not going to defend the system completely, but it’s really not a bad starting point.

However, the online lynch mob has no limit on its fury when it feels slighted. The system isn’t perfect, but you know what? You can still play the whole game for free and not get locked out of anything. It really is F2P, and there’s no pay-2-win. Everything you buy is purely cosmetic. It’s not like you need to pay $10 to unlock the sniper rifle. You don’t like the price? Don’t buy it then. I don’t know why that’s so hard for people to understand. It’s like people have no discipline with their own money and demand it be given to them instead. Honestly I’m reading some comments and people are demanding refunds. Lol wut? You knew what you were buying, it’s not like its hidden behind a curtain. Don’t blame 343 because you have no self control.

Look, I’m not saying there’s nothing to complain about, but my god this backlash just blew up way more than it should’ve and in more ways than it had a right to. Death threats? Really? Grow up.

/rant

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