Fans of the Halo series have the option of pre-ordering either the a standard edition of Halo 5: Guardians or one of the special editions for their Xbox One. The special editions come with a number of extra items, but a pre-order for any version of the game comes with its own bonus, the Longshot Assault Rifle with Recoil Compensator.
The Longshot AR comes with a laser targeter and the Bloodthirst Battle Rifle weapon skin. It is described by 343 Industries as. "Initially fielded late in the Covenant War, manufacturing concerns and logistical issues involved with its ammunition meant the BR85 service rifle was not widely adopted until after the conflict ended."
The most important feature of this gun is that it will be available to everyone, whether or not you pre-order the game. Every bit of unlockable content in the game can be "earned by everyone," according to the studio head for Halo Josh Holmes. It turns out that the pre-order for Halo 5 "just guarantees you have it out of the box" without the need to earn or unlock items in-game.
This is great news for everyone that has reservations on whether or not pre-ordering games is a good idea. Still, unlocking pre-order items in-game doesn't change that there are microtransactions.
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