Ever since Star Wars Battlefront II launched with a multiplayer progression system heavily influenced by loot boxes, the gaming world has frowned on such systems without fail. The community doesn’t like the idea of a player’s progression being significantly affected by how much money they’re willing to pour into microtransactions. That being said, microtransactions do not necessarily equate to loot boxes, something a lot of people tend to forget.
Halo Infinite will have microtransactions. However, it will not have loot boxes. 343 Industries has, in a recent blog post, explained how microtransactions will work in the game, as well as the fact that it has been delayed to Fall of 2021.
“Yes, being free-to-play does mean that there will be some premium cosmetics, but players will still obtain tons of customization content through things like playing campaign, challenges, skill, special events, legacy rewards–such as the Halo 5 SR 152 reward–the progress system, and more,” Halo Infinite lead progression designer Christopher Blohm said.
Blohm also stated that the team wants players to feel like they’re being appropriately rewarded for the amount of time they spend in the game. That being the case, players who don’t want to spend any money on the multiplayer aspect of the game won’t be penalized, and will still be able to unlock “items across a multitude of different customization types.” According to 343, microtransactions will only be tied to premium cosmetics, and moreover, it will be a one-time purchase that unlocks the content for you forever. “No loot boxes,” Blohm clarifies. “No randomness or items that influence the sandbox and gameplay.”
If you’re a player of the Master Chief Collection and have already created a Spartan that you really love, 343 wants you to be able to recreate that Spartan to the letter within Halo Infinite. What that means is that every single armor customization that made it into the Master Chief Collection will make it into Halo Infinite as well, at some point or another. That being said it’s not clear how many armor variants will be available at launch and how long it will take the many armors will make it into Infinite. But they will be there, ultimately.
“We want everyone to build their dream Spartan,” Halo Infinite design director Ryan Paradis said. “We are always looking for more ways to customize in-game personas and give the players options. My team knows that our long-term players have favorites that they love and may have for two decades. We want to make sure that Halo Infinite players will be able to get their old favorites, as well as find new favorites at launch and as we expand over the months post-launch.”
It’s good to hear that Halo Infinite is not going to succumb to the same pitfalls that many multiplayer games do. With how hotly anticipated the game is, it would be a real shame for something like that to lower its overall quality.
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