I wonder who’s to blame for this direction games are taking, especially mobile games. The pricing is crazy ridiculous. Most games like this which have seasons, premium passes, and bundles charge stupid amounts for just some temporary virtual items that are worthless. A premium pass is likely $20 in most games for a single season, so if you get the pass each season, you could spend upwards of $100 for a single year and all you get is a little bit of in-game currency which takes over a year to have enough to spend it on anything worthwhile. (I’m not talking Infinite, specifically, but it’s on a similar trend)
They kinda did us really dirty with it. I payed for the battle pass but the dopest armor coatings in the game aren’t in the battlepass, instead they’re $10 each (same price as the pass). You want the coolest armor coatings available in game, that’ll be $90. You wanna make it past the first few levels in the battle pass that’ll be $28. I’m really disappointed because I would rather pay a little more for a fully decked out battle pass where I can unlock the best customization through gameplay otherwise why bother having a battle pass.
Seasonal progression sucks for players not interested in a particular season. Especially since it appears that there are slim to none armor customizations rewarded in the battle pass without premium purchase. I agree with your incentives, and I would be further satisfied if 343 could provide some additional default rewards outside of battle pass progression, such as an overall rank (for veteran status/bragging rights), and perhaps some default rewards attributed to this overall rank like some armor effects and nameplates…just some additional incentive outside of these progression paywalls is all I really ask.
Rewarding players for purchasing campaign (or the limited edition console) would be a great idea, especially with the potential for story expansion passes (DLC) that we would likely pay more money for (I.E. halo wars 2 banished expansion). The size of these incentives is debatable…for example, purchasing the base campaign or the limited edition console could warrant a year’s worth of battle passes (3-4 season access tickets), and story expansion passes could warrant a single battle pass ticket (1 season access ticket)…that aside, the above rewards would be fair to players spending money on these more expensive items, especially given that there will be many more seasons to come.
EDIT
I’ve read some other posts and also agree that we were falsely advertised on this whole cosmetic system, given that 343 has emphasized a “player first” agenda…quite frankly it screams “pocket first” given the paywall lock on seasons (which I personally don’t mind) and the absurd paywall lock on particular armor sets (which I do mind).
However I don’t want to disparage the game; it looks really impressive, I could easily give the gameplay a 10/10 and I’m very excited for campaign!
I totally get that this is a F2P game, and this is great, but i’m sorry, i’ll probably never spend a single penny on something that doesn’t affect the gameplay at all. For me it’s 1000 times better to play everytime i want for free with the stock armor or the free stuff. That’s just the way i think it.
Honestly I can see myself spending twice as much if things were the price you suggested. I’m not paying £8 for a few pieces of armour but I’d happily spend say £2.50 multiple times, probably meaning I spend £20 rather than £8 on a one off
Games cost the same however they’re monetized. Ie. if you don’t charge for the retail price that has to be made up somehow, either with equivalent purchases made by all players (ie. everyone expect to pay $60 through your gametime) or by some players spending far more than $60 to subsidize those underpaying for the pleasure or not paying.
So enter the battle pass on top of the campaign on top of the other microtransactions. You can potentially spend a lot more than $60 on infinite, which is how they release the game for free to others. What a F2P dev needs to remain viable are these whales, else everyone jumping in without putting a coin in the tip jar just represent lost revenue and extra server bandwidth costs. That’s the cost of moving to this kind of model. Ie. you’re not going to see 343 do otherwise since that would mean finding some other way of making those same charges to maintain this kind of economic model. For example, charging for premium event passes or the return of loot boxes.
$20 for a mid-weight pack is also a fairly standard price point for F2P monetization. It’s going to be a lot for a Halo fan but for F2P games it’s a bread-and-butter level item in the store.
Who’s to blame? The knob heads that will spend $200+ buying everything pretty much. Games like madden or FIFA are some of the lowest put in effort games in development but they take in insane amounts of cash because idiots will buy card packs in game for players, or points, or the other 20 currencies those games use.
Infinite isn’t using loot boxes but the battle pass is designed to limit the player intentionally unless they buy, and making the multiplayer F2P gives them that “oh well they gotta make money somehow guys” pass. I knew something shady would be in replacement of the req packs when 343 said no more loot boxes, but them req packs were actually better than this lmfao. At least you could earn everything by playing even if it took forever because of the RNG. I’d rather have neither the BP or loot boxes but people are fine accepting that junk from companies. No standards and such🤷♀️
Producing quality story driven Halos (up to Halo Reach) on console for 60€ and giving aaaall that freEeE armor away just wasn’t good enough anymore. Microsoft want’s to be Apex Big!
While I agree with your overall sentiment, just because there is a market for it by a select number of people doesn’t mean they should or even have the right to pursue that market. I’m sure somewhere someone will pay big bucks to watch dogs fight , and those who do pursue that market are seen as scum of the Earth by most others.
This is Microsoft’s doing, I’m assuming. The only way for them to lower prices dramatically is if there is massive disapproval. Prices should be ~3-6ish USD depending on the item(s).
Just don’t buy anything. While I am sure that there is more dropping on the 8th, there is also no reason for anyone to buy anything during a Beta. If you don’t chase the carrot, things will change.
Edit: If “we” don’t chase the carrot. This is a MS owned franchise, it is free on Game Pass and between GP rewards MS rewards and Bing rewards, nobody really has to pay for anything with real money.
You said, This is a Free 2 Play mode I get that. Done.
The monetary value is determined based on average market prices and costs associated while maintaining a fair price for users to want to purchase.
This isnt no Valorant $100 skins bundle. Many items are unlockable in-game and besides we got the game for FREE
I know what it is, but it’s fake, it’s a made-up thing companies have created that one allows themselves to fall for. Kids/teens and some adults are known to fall for this, it’s why things are set up as they are now. There isn’t any cosmetic in any game that “I need to have”, and if it goes by, by
I’ve played Destiny off and on for 7 years, and I’ve only bought 2 items in that entire time. Once in Y1 of the first game that left a 100 in silver leftover so “it would encourage me to buy more silver”. Guess what? that 100 in silver has been sitting there for 7 years, that is how much “FOMO” has control over me
The other time was in Destiny 2 and guess what will happen with that “extra silver”? IMO the question should be why is there no in-game currency to earn items like the rec point?
What this actually all comes down to is reality. This bata is a (cash grab,) with the notion of fixing it later because that is what we were told.
I was a H5 whale. Spent over $2k. I’ve put $100 into infinite so far, but until some drastic changes are made, I probably won’t invest any more. Even we have our limits.
, and those who do pursue that market are seen as scum of the Earth by most others.
