A higher-up at 343 Industries has made some personal remarks on Twitter as to the recent controversy surrounding Halo Infinite and its battle pass progression, which has drawn the anger and frustration of a sizable portion of the Halo community. Though the comment was not made from an official standpoint, it lines up with the previous statement issued by 343 Industries in regards to the matter and is hopefully a good indicator that more actions are going to be taken from 343’s end to address the concerns and criticism of their player base.
Halo Infinite is the long-awaited sequel to the Microsoft in-house developed, Xbox exclusive Halo franchise. Allegedly having been in development for more than 5 years, the wait for the game is somewhat over following the release of its multiplayer portion, launched worldwide on the 15th of November to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Halo franchise.
This method of release is a departure from series predecessors, where the game would be released as a full-priced package with both single-player and multiplayer components. Instead in the case of Halo Infinite, the multiplayer portion is entirely free and instead reliant on microtransactions and cosmetics to make for financial returns on its separate end of the game.
Yes I am still playing Halo and feeling everyone’s pain on progression. We are back at it next week and this will be top of my list with the team.
— jerry hook (@hookscourt) November 28, 2021
Though with this new model that 343’s put in place for Halo Infinite, it seems that the development team has failed to reach a balance between cosmetics unlocked via battle pass progression and cosmetics sold on its storefront. Despite battle pass purchases being permanent, The community found itself in opposition to the slow unlock speed and the restrictive challenges that required doing to obtain experience faster.
The Head of Design at 343, Jerry Hook seems to recognize and agree with such sentiments from the player base. He has just recently made a brief tweet on the matter, citing his personal experience with Halo Infinite as “painful” as the one that the community is experiencing. With the assurance that he and his team will prioritize dealing with player progression as soon as they are back to work.
This is following a response made by the community Director at 343 Industries, who stated last week that though the team is hearing all the constructive feedbacks being directed towards them in regards to Halo Infinite, their priorities for that week lays with giving team members a “much-deserved break” after having completed the necessary work to put the multiplayer portion of Halo Infinite out on an earlier date.
Though it’s difficult to know for sure whether or not drastic changes will be made to the current system that Halo Infinite has in place until 343’s made an official announcement on the matter and what their plans are to remedy such, it is necessary to note that they are at least making responses to player feedback and have made some adjustments to the battle pass before their hiatus. Now it is up to the players to wait and see what 343’s going to do with the concerns raised by the community, and determine how to respond in accordance with the official stances taken on player opposition.
The Multiplayer portion of Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Whilst the Campaign mode is scheduled for release on the 8th December.
