What CAN you monetize in Halo?

Games Halo Infinite
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Of course you can say DLC or map expansions. But these days, games monetize a lot more with a store. MW2 for example sells what Infinite does at a more expansive rate. But you seriously can not believe 343i can make the same amount of cash or gain an increasing popularity they did 15 years ago by just releasing various monthly map content.

So it begs the question, what can you sell in Halo that players agree and want to buy? I’m not defending the current system. However if there isn’t anything, Halo will be left in the dust by other companies. And in my eyes, would have died eventually in the long run, if not now.

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The only thing I think they should have monetized are weapon skins, assasinations, and maybe charms and special armor effects.

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first and foremost: compelling single-player campaign. I have discovered that split screen is no longer required for enjoying single player campaigns with friends. I simply plug in Xbox controllers and Turn On Copilot. That way, 3 people can sit in a living room with their own xbox controllers and take turns playing the story mode on the big screen.

battlefield 2042 is a wreck and it is no secret that there is no campaign with battlefield 2042. they just “forgot” to add a story mode!!!

MWII has a really good story mode.

you buy a video game at full price for the story mode.

Secondly, halo is known for its’ multiplayer matchmaking. Previously, an Xbox Live Gold subscription was required to play matchmaking in halo titles. No matter how you chop it up, or discount yearlong purchases, (1 month cards, 3 month cards, 1 year subscriptions) at the simplets, Xbox Live was traditionally a monthly fee. Today there are simply “season passes” . call it whatever you want. As it stands, you buy a season pass for call of duty, battlefield 2042, and everything else? Well lets just buy Xbox Game Pass for console and/or pc, and hope that the acquisition of activision by Microsoft is permitted within the EU, and buying Xbox Game Pass simplifies and eliminates confusion of buying 18 different season passes for 18 different live-service video games.

Halo Infinite Forge needs some DLC packs that contain props. I don’t think anyone is going to pay 99 cents for a UNSC trash can. I think a well scripted prop complete with animated features and easy drag and drop placement onto maps would be a separate dlc pack

basically 3 forge dlc packs;

  1. really cool scenery props and accents. these are just like the sangheili category in halo 5 forge. they are just scenery props. [called Static Pack?] there should be a lot of highly detailed scalable objects here for people to place in interesting arrangements on their forge maps in new and unique ways.

  2. animated props with zero to minimal user interaction. more variations of that highly detailed forerunner door for example. except covenant doors, and unsc doors, high quality, large variety, color customizability, many different sizes. also within the animated props dlc pack, different kinds of detailed fusion coils (where are the plasma batteries?) some of the familiar, some of the new. maybe those flood bubble things that pop from isolation in halo 3. these animated props are artistically detailed and highly visually appealing, but from a scripting standpoint for dev teams, they are really just more player activated doors, and more destructible environment objects. you damage the objects in these packs, they have cool and sensory-invoking FX. This Forge DLC pack relies only a little bit on the user interaction side, and therefore is programmatically easier to implement. [called Forge DLC pack batch 2?] new shield doors, etc. new pickup-able fusion coils, other power cores, color customizable when applicable in different sizes and flavors.

  3. place-n-play ready complex dynamic object groups reliant upon moderate user interaction. this forge DLC pack will include sequences of switches to operate doors, with waypoints baked in to the control groups, and working red and green lights as aesthetic status indicators adjacent to in game controls, visible to players in game. this dlc pack will probably contain fewer items, but from a scripting standpoint require greater thought and effort by dev teams to thoughtfully incorporate into preexisiting (and future) gametypes. Like, for example, where are the game mode objects for the Assault bomb delivery gametype? What if we want to Weld an object to the CTF flag, or assault ball in order to make a more interesting object that is used within custom game types?

4th dlc pack weapons. there needs to be content additions like needler grenades that are able to be implemented in future matchmaking games. you gotta buy the dlc in order to play matchmaking games with needler grenades, new m392 bandit, highly remastered covenant carbine, traditional human shotgun, or any other suggested weapon additions that gain traction here in the forums or other community discussion areas. some sort of flood based biological gas grenade pod. i cant stand the brute spike grenades. where are the firebomb grenades? can we get flashbang grenades? where are the spartan lasers? Where are the railguns?

5th dlc pack unique scripted weapons. for example, a brute gravity hammer weapon that instead of being a hammer, is a medieval flail spiked ball and chain. this melee weapon would be usable in game and in matchmaking within some of the new DLC maps that are released in the future similarly to how breaker etc new 343i maps of quality and playability only 343 can afford. this dlc pack contains a few very detailed and well engineered new weapons like Brute Flail, and one or two other new power items that do a good job of demonstrating the utilization of the new grapplehook/cindershot physics feature.

6th dlc pack. basic vehicle pack. contains gauss warthog. contains spectre from halo 2. contains hornets, hornets with spartan lasers, contains some sort of human-banshee. something not quite as big as a longsword or pelican, but more like those stealth jets in the edge of the map Waterfall in Halo3. you know what i’m talking about, that manta ray looking thing. a human flight vehicle, except with banshee physics and weapon layout. similarly, this dlc pack will contain a Prophet Hover Throne vehicle. it will also contain a multiseater hornet equivalent to the human banshee, except it is a brute helicopter or something. where are the phaetons? where are the prowler brute warthogs? where is the mantis?

7th dlc pack
large and complex vehicle pack. Contains elephant. Contains working Mammoth. Contains Working Scarab. these objects integrate with shipped game modes and work as movable bases, team spawn zones, and have MAC turrent, Scarab gun turret, Mammoth sized Gatling gun turret, Scarab gun secondary turrent. one player drives the mammoth (and has control of the gatling gun). the MAC cannon, is controller by a second player. the MAC gun can be destroyed (kills the MAC operator) and the mammoth can keep on driving and using its gatling gun.
similarly, the scarab is driven by main operator (scarab driver has control over low power scarab turret). the high power scarab gun is controller by a second player. if the power scarab gun is blown up (kills the operator) the scarab can continue to walk around and use its low power gun.

the mammoth is destroyed by blowing up its fuel tank or red fuel line or whatever (after sneaking past and/or breaking the armor plating to make this weakspot more visible with a waypoint etc and you can more easily shoot this weakspot with a scorpion or wraith tank). then it blows up and will be subject to despawn cleanup and regular respawn rules.

the scarab is destroyed by blowing up its reactor core heart (after breaking the armor plating covering it) you can jump on the scarab and sneak past the reactor armor plating and blow it up that way, or you can keep shooting the armor from a distance using a scorpion or wraith and expose the reactor core to a waypoint and more easily line up a shot on this weak spot.

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each one of these forge compatible DLC packs costs $17.99 each per gamertag associated with the purchase. continued season pass revenue derived from matchmaking supports maturation of existing halo infinite forge, development of halo infinite 2 behind thick velvet curtains mystifies the world with hints of a flood homeworld planet shrouded in noxious clouds of flood spores and a lore and historical archive of the universe even older than the beginning of the forerunner recorded history.

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forge dlc pack 2 also contains more reliable gravity lifts. better gravity lifts where players and bots dont become stuck. these go into the new fusion coil/shield door dlc pack. also we need gravity volumes and gravity slides and gravity bounces. these are scripted objects based on minimal user interaction, i.e. player movement adjustment or just destructible objects.

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Firs tthing is, Call of Duty is not known for its campaign most of the time. Veteran players will usually tell me they didn’t even bother with he campaign. Compelling story for Halo is a different level though. However, these campaigns don’t come out every year like CoD. They won’t be able to make off of that.

Another thing, 343i insisted that they never planned on marketing forge with DLC packs. I also dislike the idea of creativity being limited behind a paywall, it would feel the same thing like designing your character. Another note, Halo has only so much models before they run out. You can create a Covenant, Banished, Flood and Forerunner model and then that’s really it before you start making things up. But by that point, player community have already created prefab versions of all that 343i have released.

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This is like the lowest of the low of cosmetics. This stuff is already on the market and nobody is even buying these for less than a dollar, nevermind the armor pieces that shadow over them.

I definitely agree that these can be monetized, but 343i can not make anything off of these alone.

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Not really. I’m not really sure of any other free to play game that have maps you need to pay for. That takes away from the whole free to play.

The normal way a free to play game makes a profit, is from season passes and purchasable in-game cosmetics.

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Cosmetics, duh. The FOMO card 343 tried to pull out beautiful backfired and the game underperformed financially, fully deserved.

Now if only players could buy individual items, at any given time, for anything like 100/150/200/250/300 etc. CR, the money would flow, 100% guaranteed.

Simple example - I started playing Infinite after the Greyskull visor was released, it just days “released on season 1”, now how on earth do they want to get money from it when they’re not even selling it?? But guess what, accidentally it was available again like 2 or 3 weeks ago, as a 1200CR bundle together with some random garbage I don’t want, so I passed, especially knowing how broken the game is, the BS it throws at me, and bans me for quitting all those broken matches it creates, over my dead body, a middle finger is all 343 can get out of me.

So that’s how you monetize the game, you actually allow players to spend money in the very first place, and them you allow them to decide what they actually want to buy. A bundle, if anything, should be something that’s a complete set that’s sold at a discount, like in other games where it says “save 10%”, “20% discount” etc.

The other issue is that despite having huge amount of cosmetics already, it’s virtually impossible to create something that’s fully matched, take the weapon camos alone for example - there are different camos for Sidekick, different gor AR, different for BR, literally there’s what, 2 or 3 sets that are applicable across every gun weapon, like Promethean set, which again, aligns only with the camo that only one armor core has, why? You just cannot create a whole, unified set where the armor pieces, armor skin, visor, emblem, AI color, weapon and vehicle skins actually match.

Also, why don’t the alien weapons have a camo? Like, why Mangler can’t have a skin, why Plasma Carbine always have to be this blue-ish blob, why Needler can’t be something that’s black/grey with red/green/dark purple crystals for example? Same goes for alien vehicles.

There’s just soo much money left on the table it’s really funny to read the game didn’t made up it’s development cost, let alone made any profit, but it’s just 343 being 343, incompetent at every imaginable aspect there is.

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I’m still here. see above.

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visual hud fx dlc pack. gamma ray/Geiger counter clicks, pixelated hud distortion like pointing a cmos sensor at an Xray machine.

cracked visor hud vfx. associated hud vfx noises slowly bleeding air out of helmet, into the vacuum of space.

other ultra high resolution bitmap overlays simulate dynamic visor environments. liquid droplets on visor (user colorizable)

heat distortion visor vfx

biological/flood infected tentacles spore encroachment creeping inside visor hud vfx

HUD VFX dlc pack. $17.99

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Why are you begging for more MTX???

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I would say that modern game design has shown that even cosmetic MTX are problematic.

Look what games have become. They’re bug ridden shells of their former selves, all with a nice, functional store attached that gets updates with new stuff (and people complaining if it doesn’t update often enough…). Why spend a bunch of money making a 60 dollar campaign when you can make someone buy a bunch of armor pieces and a new shade of blue for 10-20 bucks regularly…

Games are no longer games. They’re engines to make you buy some dress up items.

343 isn’t the only studio doing this. Its just 343 is incompetent even when being greedy.

You got a source for this?

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what can you sell in Halo that players agree and want to buy?

Well, you can sell stuff like the cat ears, kill effects, assassinations (if they come back) etc.
But colors for your armor and the classic halo style armors themselves should be tied to ingame challenges and be earnable by playing the game.
Then again, you could bring in new armors in different styles like they did with MCC, which can be used for events and/or sold in the store

And yes bring in some story dlc for the campaign, adding new Biomes to Zeta Halo to explore, new stuff to find and new adventures to tackle on, I’ll buy that for sure

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I would like to buy a tier level armour customization so i can get creative with my own armour give the player different tiers of customisation and have like an armour mode just like forge mode but with armor and we can pay for the different levels in teir customization to be creative !this is a win win for devs and consumers as we get the customization and devs get their targets met interm of profits

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There is nothing that a company can sell that everyone would agree with. No matter what they sell there will be some people complaining. It doesn’t matter much to me what they sell. My main complaint is we get A LOT less for our money now a days, and worse part is quality has gone down a lot as well. Guess the good news is I don’t see myself spending any more money on gaming anytime soon.

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Before answering your question 343 needs to rebuild the current store system and allow players to buy any released items at anytime. Similar to how CoD does.

Now to the question, the short answer is armor, armor/weapon/vehicle coatings, and assassinations.

Where Infinite failed is by not having many unlockable in-game options. There should be no less than twenty unlockable armors/coatings available in game via campaign, multiplayer, progression, and achievements. Each battle pass should offer no less than five free armor/coatings with each season or special event. Anything thereafter can be monetized.

For multiplayer, Infinite could have added assassinations. Yes, these do break gameplay flow and don’t really feel “classic.” But, there cool. Adding different assassinations via in-game store wouldn’t be a horrible idea.

The important part is to make sure players have free unlockables from day one. Something they can earn and be rewarded with. It’s a fine balance between “earned reward” and “in-store” content. Find this balance and you’ll have success.

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I would say the stuff they are currently doing now is fine MINUS colours for armour. The fact that they charged like $7 for red or whatever is just stupid beyond stupid!! Now if they want to charge colors for vehicles, I’m fine with that, but not for your Spartan.

They could also always give the option to make it so you could “earn” x item through in game currency like how other games have done it. Obviously those prices would be really high or If the player doesn’t want to grind for x item they can pay x amount for it. I have no problem with that type of system at all. Seems like a win-win for everyone.

This said, I REALLY do feel like there should be some armours, helmets etc that can ONLY be earned threw doing crazy things in game like what Halo 3 had. I thought that was a phenomenal system!! Now this also said, I don’t feel there ever should be any type of cosmetic that can only be obtained through buying it.

I’m quite convinced if Halo Infinite used What I just proposed in this message, there would be a lot more happier people… But hardly anyone would still be playing the game because the game is still so broken on many levels and still missing mass amounts of features unfortunately :pensive:

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Okay, simple fact here:

Every successive generation of games does not need to provide more revenue streams.

I know that greed seems to function this way in our economy, but a product can be successful without being squeezed for every penny its worth.

There is also value to having a product that people see as complete and good, and to having a good relationship with customers.

Look at the LOTR movies. Which would you call “better?” the trilogy, or the hobbit? Now which do you think made more money at the box office?

Maybe just making Halo games and selling them for a lump price can just be what it is? Imagine the respect Halo would have if they had avoided mtx entirely, never gone trend chasing, and just kept making phenomenal single player content? It would still be the flagship for the xbox.

I’d happily have spent over $60 on Infinite if it was a complete package. Instead I got it on game pass, bought the first $10 battle pass then walked away. They might be squeezing $20 armor kits out of some folks, but they are losing a lot of customers like myself.

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If 343 decides to monetize this game guess what I’m gone and I sure I won’t be the only one and thats a fact!

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