Was F2P worth it?

[F1erceE1ements]

Has there been any candid discussion from 343i or MS explaining that the highest player count ever on launch provided as much / more revenue than traditional AAA game $60 release?

[Jester]

Personally for me I feel F2P wasn't worth it. I'm glad more people got to try Halo as I've been a big fan of the franchise right up until Halo 5 which killed the game for me as Halo 4 was pushing it. The sad part is I actually like how the game plays and its enjoyable but from desync and poor matchmaking especially in my region of Oceania its been a bit frustrating. And the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MTX. I paid for the battlepass because I did want to support the game and thats about it. The store was a horrible edition. And ontop of that I had to pay $100 NZD anyway for just the campaign I paid what I would normally pay for a huge game like The Witcher 3, or a complete Multiplayer experience like Halo MCC which was actually cheaper for all Halo games than it was for just the Infinite campaign. I don't know, I'm just sad that this game isn't turning out as I hoped as the core of its fun.

[F1erceE1ements]

Originally posted by CMA Jester:

Personally for me I feel F2P wasn't worth it. I'm glad more people got to try Halo as I've been a big fan of the franchise right up until Halo 5 which killed the game for me as Halo 4 was pushing it. The sad part is I actually like how the game plays and its enjoyable but from desync and poor matchmaking especially in my region of Oceania its been a bit frustrating. And the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MTX. I paid for the battlepass because I did want to support the game and thats about it. The store was a horrible edition. And ontop of that I had to pay $100 NZD anyway for just the campaign I paid what I would normally pay for a huge game like The Witcher 3, or a complete Multiplayer experience like Halo MCC which was actually cheaper for all Halo games than it was for just the Infinite campaign. I don't know, I'm just sad that this game isn't turning out as I hoped as the core of its fun.

I hear ya. I'm from Australia and the player base still exists luckily. just long queue times.

[Blegh]

f2p=more money for meeeeee

-343

[Patrick Wayne]

was giving this game to 343i worth it?
it feels like the same situation with george lucas giving away star wars

[Blegh]

Originally posted by FlyAboveClouds:

was giving this game to 343i worth it?
it feels like the same situation with george lucas giving away star wars

That is a pretty poor comparison.

There has been some great stuff to come out of that deal

[countgrey]

Honestly, this particular discussion is largely irrelevant if your sole metric for success is player count. "Player count" used to mean that every person playing had purchased the game (not counting the people who were on a Guest account), and all we cared about as players was quick matchmaking times. With a F2P system, all the company needs to do is maintain a certain minimum number of players to keep queue times low while they focus on microtransactions. It's no longer about who has the most players, but who has the most paying players. Microsoft - and other companies - have undoubtedly already determined key ratios that represent different levels of returns on investment, and unfortunately for us they're focused on gaining more paid users than they are general users.

[Fax_the_Sender]

it's almost like the game is running on xlive.

[Dr. Atrocious]

Most certainly not. Especially considering how many might've bought the campaign for $1. Imagine, every player would've had to spend at least $40-$60 in cosmetics to even be comparable to Halo's traditional sales. Of course there may be a few whales, but I've no doubt those are a very small minority.

[Deathscare]

Originally posted by Metal is the best:

Originally posted by FlyAboveClouds:

was giving this game to 343i worth it?
it feels like the same situation with george lucas giving away star wars

That is a pretty poor comparison.

There has been some great stuff to come out of that deal

As long as we're not referring about the sequels.

[Blegh]

Originally posted by Deathscare:

As long as we're not referring about the sequels.

I said "some" not all.

The sequels are.....*brrr* let's not even talk about them

[Shehow (300β)]

No it destroyed the experience but look at call of duty. you pay and they still micro the hell out of it so at this point idk. Modern games just kinda just lame and made to extract as much money as possible. The love is gone. its like pop commercial music now.

[IvanTheRexouium]

Originally posted by FlyAboveClouds:

was giving this game to 343i worth it?
it feels like the same situation with george lucas giving away star wars

I'd say give it to id Software and Certain Affinity, and see what happens to Halo from there. id are more than capable of making an "old school" FPS, and Certain Affinity have worked on Halo for longer than even 343 Industries, basically being the co-developer of every main Halo game since 2004.

And to answer the OP's question - No, it wasn't. I would've paid $60 for a complete game, along with nearly everyone else I know, we didn't ask for a over monetized F2P game, we wanted to be able to actually progress like we did in Halo 3, ODST, Reach, 4, and MCC, with a real progression system. Currently the only form of progression in this game is how much money you've spent on credits.

[Anna Banana]

I don't think it was worth it, personally. I'd rather have just bought the game for $60 so they didn't have the "live service" and "free to play" excuses. If they paired it with the campaign, it likely would've been very similar anyway.

[Richard Jokes]

Originally posted by F1erceE1ements:

Has there been any candid discussion from 343i or MS explaining that the highest player count ever on launch provided as much / more revenue than traditional AAA game $60 release?

I have zero doubt that they lost money on this in comparison to a 60 release. I can adamantly say that without a doubt. All they did was basically welcome cheating open arms and drive other people away.

[The Traveler]

It was a huge risk from them. Let the most popular Xbox multipalyer game for free on Xbox and PC. Which means many casual players and cheaters play along with old school players and fans of the franchise.
I would do this: the campaign and the whole multipalyer section with all function for the 60 $/€ pricetag. And release a F2P chunk of the MP for new palyers to play it. But they can only play with other F2P players and amybe after reaching a certain rank (another missing content) can paly with premium players. CS:GO had something similar, if you we're a F2P player you can't play with players who brought the game. So casual and premium players doesn't mix.