Halo Infinite comes under fire for new ‘money hungry’ cosmetic unlocks

Halo Infinite’s new take on character customization — an overhauled ‘armor coating’ system — is coming under fire just days after multiplayer servers went online, with players lashing out at the steep costs to change their Spartan’s color scheme.

In previous Halo titles, swapping the look of your armor was simple. You went into the menu, equipped certain gear, picked your favorite primary and secondary color combo, and that was it. Now, things are a little more complicated.

With Halo Infinite finally upon us, players are getting accustomed to an overhauled cosmetic system. 343 Industries originally detailed this new armor coating structure back in 2020. Yet even with immense backlash at the time, the devs stuck to their guns.

Through this new system, armor can only be customized with ‘seven layer shaders’ that apply to all pieces of gear at once. Rather than being able to fine-tune each bit of armor separately, these shaders take over the full set. Not only has player choice been limited, but armor coatings also happen to come at a steep cost.

“Halo Infinite customization needs to change,” the Halo subreddit demanded on November 18.

If the current system was applied to Halo 3’s full set of armor, players calculated that it would cost north of $270,000 to unlock every unique color combination.

“The game being free doesn’t excuse bad monetization systems,” one particular post said.

“Removing colors is such a transparent cash grab. The coating system is broken and anti-consumer,” others added.

For many, the overhaul itself isn’t inherently bad. Rather, it’s the limitations within the new system that make it “disappointing,” Reddit user ‘Aurelien-131’ explained. 

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Players have been wanting to customize individual pieces of armor for years. With Infinite, it’s finally possible. But “we’re not allowed to make any of those choices ourselves,” they said. Instead, everyone has to “rely on pre-made combinations.”

As a result of these changes, each new shader comes at a price. While some are available in the Battle Pass, others have to be purchased manually.

Costs vary though skins for singular weapons can run for as much as $10: Not a universal shader that applies to every gun in the game, just one skin for one specific weapon.

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“It’s sad,” one player said in response.

“Nothing about Halo going Free to Play was meant to be a positive change for the players,” another chimed in. “Every single aspect of this game is now built around making money.”

343 is yet to issue a response though given this system was outlined more than a year ago, it’s unlikely we’ll see any significant changes in the near future.