Details on the next installment of the Halo franchise is pretty slim at this time still, but today we at least get a bit of insight how monetization for Halo Infinite will look like. Head of Studio at 343 Industries Chris Lee chimed in to clear the air – and negative community reaction – after news broke out that Halo Infinite is going to feature microtransactions. On Twitter, Lee succinctly replied to a Tweet by a prominent Halo Youtuber and stated that “Halo Infinite will not include real-money loot boxes”.
Keep the faith, it's appreciated! We’re still working through final plans and will share more when we are ready, but I can definitely say that Halo Infinite will not include real-money loot boxes.
— Chris Lee (@tefferlee) September 19, 2018
Obviously, this is good news for gamers but the answer is still pretty superficial considering the matter at hand. Yes, purchasing in-game loot boxes with actual real money is a business model pretty much every gamer despises. So to get confirmation that those will be absent in Halo Infinite is very good. But the question of microtransactions is still left open. How will those microtransactions impact game progress? What about balancing? Will it be possible to simply buy the game and still earn all items via regular play?
These are important questions and 343 Industries and Microsoft are not exposing too much about them. In fact, they are barely giving any info about Halo Infinite at all. After the bombastic reveal this E3, all we got from the creators was that the popular Battle Royale game mode likely won’t be a part of the new Halo.
There’s little doubt that with Halo Infinite, Microsoft is aiming to enter the Games-as-a-Service model of long-term supported multiplayer-focused games. Similar to Destiny or Overwatch. In GaaS type of games, microtransactions and the flow of real cash is almost inevitable. At least, it’s hard to find a title like that.
Keeping that in mind, it’s almost a safe bet to expect Halo Infinite to include some way of purchasing anything in-game related with real money. Whether it’s mere cosmetic stuff like skins or items which affect game balance. Gambling-like luck-based Loot Boxes are at least out of the question.
