Halo Infinite - free to play, smart or terrible move by MS?

A terrible move imo.

The game was already delayed a year because of how rough it looked at reveal and to make things worse, MS decides to release its most relevant component as a f2p. What is this? Do they lack the confidence that including this on GP and making it a paid game would make people not play it? Imagine if Sony or Nintendo released their highest profile games as a f2p. I mean, this is Halo, "supposedly" MS's biggest franchise.

It is weird.

Discuss.

Micro transactions, loot boxes you name it.

F2P MP is the future. Maybe you missed games like Fortnite, Apex, and Warzone and the massive amounts of money they make.

Its a smart move. But if they're charging $60 for campaign, it better be incredible. Since its on GP day one, it will be 7/10 worthy at best, tho.

This is the TC singing about MS

MP games suck F2P or priced.

SP is all I care about.

$60 for just the campaign seems a bit much for me.

We have BF2142 which is a MP game and is £60 vs Halo MP which is free. So we will get to see if this is a good decision or not quite soon.

F2P just means you are the product

Only time will tell, if the f2p mp proves to be successful then evidently it was a smart move. If it flops it flops.

However I definitely see why MS wants to do this, it reaches more people since you don't need to pay for online play on f2p games and since it's free more people would be inclined to at least try it out. All that's left for MS is to make enough money with the mtx and they'd be good.

@wonderwinner: This thread is weak sauce, you jelly little cow.

Bro, MS so lives in your head for free. If Sony was doing this with MP of one of their franchises, you'd have 5-10 threads about how "Sony is going to dominate" over it.

At this point, you should just sell your PlayStation(s) and get an XSX. At least then you'd get to play the console you are so obsessed about.

People who don't like FREE to play are Dumb AF

Someone wonder winned themselves

F2P multiplayer games have already done the damage. In order to get the game into more hands it had to go F2P - at least that is what I think MS' thought process was.

From a business standpoint, they could say if you buy the game retail you get X and Y costumes, guns, whatever, that would otherwise cost you more if you bought it in the F2P version. Give gamers incentive.

Then again, the game is also going to be on Game Pass.

exactly right. Call of Duty had a huge surge in popularity with Warzone. A lot of the most successful and profitable MP games are F2P these days.

it doesn't strike me as risky or unusual at all in this day and age.

Seemed to work for Killzone and Uncharted back in the day.

If people would have payed, they still would have been playing the multiplayer until the next Halo game comes out.

I'm sure with it being free, people will still be playing it until the next game, but I would assume a lot more since it is free.

so very smart of MS making basically one of the best multiplayer games out there free.

we ALL win!

@wonderwinner: Halo Infinite is truly the most anticipated game of 2021, and Halo is by far the most popular franchise in console gaming right now.

Why would I say this? There are three - maybe four - threads on SW right now talking about Halo, written by COWS. We all know Lems are interested in it, there seems to be a lot of interest by the Hermits, but three threads from Cows about a new iteration to a franchise they can't play? Man - that's some popularity right there.

It’s a great move for all involved. Gamers get the part of Halo that is actually good at no cost, and Xbox maximizes their earning potential. The only loser here is the Halo campaign and those who worked on it. But maybe 343 and Xbox know it’s no good. I guess we’ll find out soon enough

Smart move. The FPS genre is over saturated as hell with tons of competition from every major publisher, half of which are already free to play, and Halo hasn't had the FPS crown for a while. Microsoft just wants Gamepass subscribers, and a 1st party multiplayer game will increase that while micro-transactions will recoup the loss of revenue over the course of the game's life. Plus, if the game releases and it isn't the 2nd coming of gaming like people want, they can fall back on the fact that it's free on gamepass and they will improve it over the next few years just like they did sea of thieves.

Smart Move

Microsoft know what they are doing

I think it’s a smart move. Removes the barrier of entry for a whole lot of people. I’m going to play both the single player and multiplayer stuff myself.

Smart because otherwise no one would wanna play it!

they need those juicy micro transactions!!

@gym_lion: BF will be more successful, that's a given. It's a vastly more popular and superior series than halo.

@simple-facts: you're still triggered about me always being on your mind.

Simple fact, my little bluestar.

@Archangel3371: what Barrier of entry? If people can afford the hardware to run Halo Inf, they can afford a $60 game. Worse they certainly can afford a month, hell, a year of gamepass. This assertion makes no sense.

@tdkmillsy: they've been constantly failing for the last 10 years or so. They clearly don't know what they're doing.

@wonderwinner: they are one of the most successful companies on the planet.

They know what they are doing.

@tdkmillsy: except for the gaming side, they've been failing forever on the gaming side. All that money and they can't really be successful in one industry. Nintendo and Sony destroy MS on the gaming side.

They don't know what they're doing. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The only real conclusion is that MS is not confident enough on Halo Inf, hence, made it a f2p game. removing the game pass requirement is all but confirming that the multiplayer part of the game is in shambles.

@wonderwinner: People play free to play games all the time on various systems from consoles to PCs and all those people still had to purchase the hardware to play those games on. Removing the barrier of entry which is the cost of the game itself is a perfectly valid assertion to make. 🤷‍♂️

@wonderwinner: The only company for the gamer right not is Microsoft. Gamepass is the best gamer focused service on the planet. Something Microsoft are very good at.

Sony think they can milk players with remakes and increased costs.

Nintendo think the world wanted a switch with an oled screen.

You know nothing

Now tell me I trapped or triggered. Cos that's all u got.

Firstly, thread backfired...again.😂

It is objectively a smart move for three reasons. Halo is iconic to Xbox and the brand. Microsoft has removed cost to play online games that are free to play and Halo MP is free to play. Finally, Halo would be releasing on four platforms day one, PC, mobile, Xbox One and Series. This makes it the largest userbase Halo would have ever been launched on.

@Archangel3371: that's completely different than making your highest profile series a f2p game on all your platforms, no including mobile devices. Imagine Nintendo making a main Mario game f2p?

@tdkmillsy: No company is for the gamer, they're for the money.

@Pedro: already caught you once again. You've been wonderwinned. 😎

You think devaluing your main series is a smartmove. Not really unexpected from... You. 🤭

@wonderwinner: so Sony lied for years when they said they where for the gamer. That's the kind of company they are.

BField 2042 is the most anticipated game and its 70 dollars for online not free.

So let’s get this straight business genius…

COD, Apex, Fortnite - 3 of the most popular, most played, most streamed games, making tons of money, all FTP.

BFV - Had to buy the game to get the multiplayer and BR Firestorm mode. Game died a quick death. No one plays Firestorm.

Why would Halo’s MP mode going FTP be bad? It’s gets more people on it, who will buy the BP, buy skins.

This was a great move by MS and Cows are nervous.

@wonderwinner: No not really it still gives access to the most amount of consumers regardless of if it’s to a singular consumer base or multiple ones.

So what if Nintendo wanted to put out a free to play mainline Mario game? It too would then be available to even more consumers on their platform then the standard retail ones.

So, you made this thread just for me? 😂 And you can't counter any of my points. 🤣

@tdkmillsy: only fools believed that. Maybe you're a fool. 🤣

Seeing a halo game as a f2p is blasphemy.

Any MP focused game that isn't F2P hasn’t been paying attention the last few years.

Already a thread about this.

so your purpose of creating all these dumb threads is to "catch people" and not actually discuss the dumb things you bring up?

Not sure but I think that is against posting guidelines... perhaps your account needs to be limited to 2 posts a day so the fluff goes away

@regnaston: He created this thread just for me. 😊

Lol yeah sure, BF2042 will be a dead game while stuff like CoD, Halo, and Apex will still have large player populations.

@fedor: is the current BF game dead? 🤣