No free multiplayer

Nothing more needs to be said, if you open up crossplatform multiplayer for free you will be spending unnecessary man power catching cheaters. It isn't worth wasting resources fixing exploits when you could close multiplayer off to free players and use those resources to deliver something groundbreaking.

Cheaters are going to be a big deal, in fact, I think that'll be the hardest thing they'll have to deal with.

I was shocked at the bold move but I am open to seeing how this goes. I think this is actually a good thing in helping Halo reclaim (no pun intended to the reclaimer saga) their spotlight.

Still wish they'd abolish xbox live gold since Infinite online is technically not free on consoles.

i think this is where xbox players could get the advantage by simply turning off crossplay. Also i felt this was the dumbest move because then it will be mtx galore and the excuse is "oh well it f2p".

It's probably not going to change, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

BreezyStarfish1 wrote:

It's probably not going to change, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

I agree. I'm also sure we'll have the option to turn off / disable cross play, I can and do regularly in CoD. I would like it expanded when it comes to 3rd party games. I think we should also have the option to select cross play with consoles, pc or both.

However much I do agree that there will more than likely be problems with cheaters I think scrapping free to play entirely because of it isn’t the right play here.

Free to play offers access to a lot of people and would boost the Halo playerbase a lot. The franchise could do with some time in the spotlight.

This increase in extra players would also in turn boost the amount of in game purchases being made (as long as they’re not ridiculous of course). That increase in purchasing will do two things. Fund futures content for the game & help keep the game running in the long term (including integrity of matches).
We’re also talking Xbox First party here. Technology does exist to catch out cheaters. Many free to play games have handled cheaters before, I don’t see this being a outlying case where little is done to prevent it.

AveryArmory wrote:

I think it would be a little unfair to say that we can’t have both groundbreaking content and good anti cheat. It’s definitely doable to have both in a reasonable way. I do agree that having the game be free to play will inevitably open the game up to more cheaters, but I think if there are going to be cheaters they will be there regardless. I feel like every game should take all the steps necessary to combat cheaters whether the game is free to play or not.

I don't think it's unfair at all. Give me one example of a paid MP game that isn't then ruined by adding free MP. To be fair I'll give you examples of prominent games that get ruined by F2P MP cheaters- Destiny 2 and CoD warzone. Two different companies. Two different genres. Both are spending unnecessary resources into fighting cheaters literally culminating in Bungie using resources to SUE cheaters and cheat software developers. I mean how much more of a waste of time is that.

AveryArmory wrote:

Big T Mac10 wrote:

It should be free only to those with XBL or Gamepass.

If you are playing on console the multiplayer will most likely still require Xbox Live Gold. Xbox requires the same with other free to play multiplayer titles such as Fortnite, so I’ll bet the same will apply to Halo as well. Charging a separate fee for PC players to play Halo Infinite multiplayer when it’s being marketed as free to play will almost surely kill the PC population, as I can’t imagine many PC players will want to subscribe to something just to play Halo multiplayer. I could be wrong though as people do subscribe monthly for World of Warcraft, although that’s a little different lol

I should have clarified: Those on PC would need XBL Gold or to buy the game proper. This hurdle prevents the majority of cheating and alt accounts and the recurring alt accounts of cheaters, which are most prevalent on PC.