Earlier this week, job listings revealed that Halo Infinite will have live service elements, including microtransactions. That’s not at all surprising, but the exact nature of those purchases remain a point of concern. Halo 5 featured a loot box-style system for one of its game modes, but Infinite will not feature any kind of loot boxes available for purchase.
Chris Lee, studio head of FPS dev at 343 Industries, says the company is still “working through final plans” on monetization and will share more info in the future, but there’s one point he doesn’t hedge on. “I can definitely say that Halo Infinite will not include real-money loot boxes.”
That comes via Twitter, following the initial discovery of those job listings courtesy of GameSpot. (Incidentally, those listings also revealed that 343 will be investing in anti-cheat tech for the PC version and additional security features.)
Halo 5 did feature real money loot boxes in the form of its REQ Packs, which offer new weapons, boosters, and customisation options for the Warzone mode. These packs could be earned in-game – and final reward system was fairly generous, in many players’ estimations – but a loot box system offering gameplay-affecting rewards was understandably controversial.
The Halo Infinite release date is a long way off, but it’ll be the first Halo PC release in quite a while. (Despite frequent rumours to the contrary Halo 5 PC is still not happening.) We’ll find out how the game’s final microtransactions some time closer to Infinite’s release.