In roughly two weeks Halo 5: Guardians will be making its release, along with a new in-game microtransaction system – the REQ system. During multiplayer gameplay in Halo 5 players will earn points towards the REQ system that will allow them to purchase REQ packs. Each REQ pack will feature different weapons, skins, vehicle calls and more, but players don't really need to play the game to earn points for the pack – in fact – they can circumvent the process and buy a pack with real-money.
Prices for the packs start at around $2 to $3 and go up from there, but if you play for points to buy them you'll need to rack up anywhere from 1,250 RP, 5,000 RP to 10,000 RP (you earn around 2,000 RP per Warzone match).
According to 343 Industries' design director Kevin Franklin in an interview with GameSpot, whether you spend real-money on the game or not is negligible. Players that purchase REQ packs with real-money won't have any significant advantage over players that choose not to spend a dime on the game.
Everything you can get in the REQ system, you can earn whether you spend money or not. There's no crazy special items that are only going to be reserved for people who spend a lot more money. Also, you get a lot of rewards whether you're playing Arena or Warzone, so you're always going to have a ton of stuff that you'll be able to use.
How did 343 Industries ensure that players that spent real money wouldn't trump other players? Halo 5's REQ system is kept in check by the in-game energy system that will limit the amount of REQs that are used in-game.
At the end of the day, it's a multiplayer game. It's not a spend-more-to-win game. We wanted to make sure that if you spend a whole ton of money, and you thought you could get five scorpions just because you spent more money, it's not going to work. You're still going to have to earn the right to call these scorpions into the battlefield.
You actually have an energy system, and that levelling system that will gate you and keep the end-game balanced. And that was really huge–we're multiplayer designers, we can't just make a really unbalanced game. It just wouldn't feel Halo.
So, that should lighten up your day if the REQ system has you down.
