Halo Infinite: Battle Pass progression may ruin multiplayer

Xbox gamers around the world have been talking about and craving a brand new Halo game for many years now. They will finally get their craving satisfied with Halo Infinite on December 8, 2021. Halo Infinite will be split into a paid-for campaign and a free-to-play multiplayer. Following in the footsteps of many of today’s multiplayer games, the game will introduce a Battle Pass, and fans are not too excited about this.

Battle Passes are prominent in many of today’s multiplayer games, serving as an additional revenue stream for developers/publishers and giving fans something to work towards as they play the game. These usually don’t impact the gameplay itself, but instead off in-game cosmetic rewards that enhance your experience aesthetically.

Most Battle Passes level up through XP that you get just by playing the game. Some games, like Fortnite, have actual quests or tasks you must complete beyond just getting wins and kills. Usually you get XP just from playing the multiplayer and everything else you do in multiplayer gets you additional XP towards your Battle Pass. However, that does not appear to be the case for Halo Infinite.

343 Industries have confirmed that the only way you will be able to level up the Battle Pass in Halo Infinite would be by completing challenges in the game. You heard that correctly. Even community manager John Junyszek confirmed that there will be no per-match XP at launch. However, something else that John Junyszek confirmed was that playing matches and winning games would be some of the challenges.

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Gamers are not happy with this approach and they have good reason. Creating a game that focuses too much on getting challenges can ultimately taint the multiplayer in the long run.

Challenges are meant to be additional ways that gamers can earn XP to help level them up quicker. They shouldn’t be and are not meant to be forced on gamers. Making challenges this critical to Halo Infinite’s multiplayers will ultimately make gamers go for them almost every game. In the long run, this can cause the game’s multiplayer to get a little uneven as players might only want to go for challenges rather than playing the game as they usually do. The last thing that developers want their game to become is a challenge hungry game and not being played like a normal Halo multiplayer game should be played.

Nonetheless, Jerry Hook, who is the head of design at 343 Industries, made the point very clear that 343 is always listening to feedback and that the Battle Pass can be changed in the future. It’s good to hear that 343 Industries has an open mind and wants what is best for their fans. Unfortunately, the current Battle Pass progression system that they have planned is more than likely set in stone for launch, but maybe after seeing how it plays out after a couple weeks we may all be proven wrong. Hopefully all of our questions will be answered this December.