14 DAY TRIAL // When the development team at 343 Industries announced that it was planning to offer all the new maps for Halo 5: Guardians for free during the first year of the shooter's life, a lot of gamers were impressed by the move, which runs counter to some current video game trends.
The studio explains that it has made the decision because it wants to focus on the player for the new Master Chief experience and has seen the effects that splitting the player base can have when it launched the previous entry in the franchise.
Kevin Franklin, a design director, tells Gamespot that "The benefit of this is it's going to give us better match-making, because there's less buckets people have to filter through, everybody has access to the same content, it's going to give us a lot more focus on when we want to start adding things. So that was the biggest deal for us when we were making that decision."
Once the year is out, 343 Industries will probably continue to support the shooter with DLC that comes with an attached price tag.
Halo 5: Guardians will have a built-in revenue stream
The developers are introducing an entirely new REQ system for the multiplayer side of the shooter, which will enable it to get money from the community as it creates the free maps.
Basically, gamers can get access to a number of special cards, more than 1,000 on launch, which they can use to customize their Warzone or Arena experiences.
They can be bought using RP that is earned as a gamer plays the various modes of Halo 5: Guardians, but there's also an option to spend real-world money to get Silver and Gold packs, which are priced at 1.99 and 2.99 dollars or Euro.
Warzone is an all-new mode which is designed to mix Player versus Player and Player versus Environment elements, with some inspirations drawn from the MOBA genre.
The more competitive gamers should focus on Arena, the mode that's created with eSports action in mind.
Capture the Flag is also part of the launch package, and a Big Team Battle and associated mode will be introduced after release.
Halo 5: Guardians will be offered only on the Xbox One and arrives on October 27.