Halo Infinite dev 'looking at' battle pass progression after player feedback
Halo Infinite's multiplayer launched into beta earlier this week, and while the game itself has seemingly been well-received by players, there are some aspects that players take issue with. Perhaps the biggest is battle pass progression, something that's been a contentious topic for Halo fans since well before Infinite's launch. Now, after Halo fans made their voices heard, 343 Industries says that it's looking into complaints about the battle pass.
What's the issue with Halo Infinite's battle pass?
In breaking with past games in the series, Halo Infinite is being offered as a standalone, free-to-play release for the first time. Obviously, since it's free-to-play, that means Microsoft needs to make money in ways other than charging upfront. Like many other free-to-play shooters, Microsoft has opted to offer a seasonal battle pass to players alongside a cash shop where people can use premium currency to purchase skins and other cosmetic items.
As I noted yesterday in my first impressions article, Halo Infinite feels a lot like Fortnite from the perspective of monetization. While Infinite's cash shop is charging ridiculous prices for its cosmetics (something that we hope to see changed in the future), there's a different problem with the battle pass: It's no fun to level up because progress is slow.
While most games usually give battle pass progress just for playing matches, such a mechanism doesn't exist in Halo Infinite. Instead, the only way to earn progress toward battle pass levels is by completing challenges, and this is a change that's been contested by fans since it was announced. While initially it seemed that 343 would be sticking to its guns for Halo Infinite season 1, now the studio is suggesting that changes could come sooner.
A change may be coming
On Twitter, 343 community director Brian Jarrard referenced these battle pass criticisms directly, saying that the team is considering data gathered from early matches played during the beta. "Thank you to everyone who has jumped into the #HaloInfinite beta so far! FYI the team is looking at Battle Pass progression and gathering data from yesterday's sessions and we'll share updates as we have them," Jarrard said. "Please continue to share feedback and raise flags as you see them."
While that's not confirmation that anything will be changing, it is confirmation that 343 is listening to the complaints. As I said in SlashGear's first impressions post, battle pass progression feels needlessly slow at the moment, and it isn't enjoyable to pay money for the premium battle pass only to have it progress at a snail's pace.
The hope is that 343 will tweak it in such a way that players start getting battle pass XP for each game they play. Of course, 343 could come up with a different solution to these battle pass progression issues, or it may simply opt to keep things the way they are. We'll update you when we hear more from the studio, so stay tuned for that.