Over the last year we have seen our fellow gamers push back against increased attempts for monetization by video game publishers. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Middle Earth: Shadow of War were to notable titles that had earned the ire of gamers through the use of loot crates – an item players could buy with real money to get a random and potentially powerful in-game item. The blowback was intense enough that loot crates would eventually be removed from both of those titles. There still remains a certain skepticism among gamers when it comes to future titles and possible monetization efforts. This was certainly the case for one influential gamer and YouTuber who goes by the name of HiddenXperia; he expressed his disappointment with microtransactions in the upcoming Halo Infinite.
Surprisingly enough, Chris Lee, an executive at Halo developer 343 Industries, saw the tweet and responded. While unable to provide any in-depth details about the game, he did state emphatically that there will be no loot boxes that can be purchased with real money in Halo Infinite. You can see check out the tweet for yourself below:
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
The particularly cynical gamers out there will note that this still leaves plenty of room for Microsoft to implement other forms of monetization such as cosmetic skins. We will have to wait and see before passing judgment on the game’s economy but it is at least comforting to know that one of the more egregious forms of in-game monetization is off the table.
