While cosmetics are optional and don’t impact the outcome of a game, many players are beginning to become annoyed with some of the monetization practices already seen in Halo Infinite, in addition to the XP progression problems that make leveling up the Battle Pass a really tedious task.
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Recently in the shop, it was noticed by a player on Reddit that 343 Industries was charging 700 credits for a helmet and a red color for it - this equates to $7. With the helmet being added to the shop it also means that the set has two other cores to go with it, a body and limbs option, which would total $21 to purchase all three and the specific red color. For contrast the full Battle Pass costs approximately $10 and includes over 100 cosmetics.
This has baffled and angered some Halo Infinite players, with some in the Reddit thread criticizing this practice by 343 Industries, also pointing out how the closest amount of credits that can be purchased are 500 or 1,000. This means that players will need to purchase more than they need, which is a common monetization technique in games as it means players have leftover credits which encourage them to purchase more to acquire another item in the shop.
It is interesting to see how microtransactions and monetization practices have progressed over the past decade or so, with one of the earlier examples of microtransactions being the horse armor in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion which garnered a lot of criticism by players. Now it has become an expected part of online gaming and many players have accepted whatever practices a company puts in place.
Since the Halo Infinite multiplayer beta was unexpectedly released on November 15th it has become one of the most popular online games, with it becoming the most popular free game on Xbox beating out Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite.
343 Industries has announced that it will be tweaking the Battle Pass progression to make it easier for players, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that the company will be looking to tweak the pricing of its shop items.
Halo Infinite multiplayer is available now on PC via Steam and Windows Store, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The Halo Infinite campaign will launch on the same platforms on December 8th, with it also being available on Xbox Game Pass for both console and PC.
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