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343 Industries has confirmed that Halo Infinite will not feature loot boxes, in line with the game’s “principles and pillars”.
This is according to Ryan Paradis, the upcoming title’s design director for the Live Team. In a new wide-ranging blog post from the developer, Paradis revealed that Halo Infinite will not include loot boxes of any kind as his team believes that players “should understand what they’re getting” should they choose to “[invest] their time or money in the game”.
He boiled this down to his team’s guiding “principles and pillars”, which he described as “a general starting point for designs and decision-making”. As part of these guidelines, his team has also ruled out “random rewards” in order to be more “player-first”.
“Think of all the games we’ve all played that have random rewards, ask people to play a way they hate just for a new shiny, or weaponise FOMO against the player,” Paradis added. “There will be limited-time events, but we don’t want to turn free time into a chore. We’re not all about that. Everyone should enjoy their time in Halo Infinite.”
However, Halo Infinite will still have micro-transactions, partly due to the fact that its multiplayer mode is going to be free-to-play. “Yes, being free-to-play does mean that there will be some premium cosmetics,” noted lead progression designer Christopher Blohm, “but players will still obtain tons of customisation content through things like playing campaign, challenges, skill, special events, legacy rewards, the progress system and more.”
In the same post, Halo Infinite creative director Joseph Staten also announced the game’s new release window of Fall 2021. The game was originally set for release in November, alongside the Xbox Series X|S, but was subsequently pushed back partially due to development challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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