With Halo 5 about ready to emerge, plenty of excited gamers are dying to get hands on the latest go-round with Master Chief and all the rest. But 343 Industries is throwing in a little something extra that shows off the kind of marketing power a game can offer.

Those who play will have access to REQ packs, which are 343's version of microtransactions. Microtransactions, in turn, are those small transactions offered commonly in games that allow users access to new points of content. These can either be cosmetic, like with new hats or costumes or paintjobs for weapons and vehicles, or even related to plot, like new areas and weapons. In this case, however, 343 is prepared to offer up one of these REQ packs, with a minimum value of $2, to those willing to watch ten short videos, each with a runtime just under ten seconds.

The videos themselves are said to be interesting enough, and once complete, the REQ pack can offer up a slate of options--one viewer ended up with a new skin for an assault rifle in the game--but this represents an impressive marketing move. It combines two known forms of promotion; the pay-to-watch-short-videos phenomenon and the free in-game bonus promotion. Watching short videos for pay is nothing new online; a quick Google search turned up over 243 million results. But when combined with the microtransaction concept, the result is something much more interesting. Sure, most of us like getting paid, but when gaming, sometimes the best offer is one that provides a boost in the game currently played. So instead of watching short videos for money, players can watch short videos for in-game bonuses. The possibility that follows allows game makers to sell advertising space on those short videos, and essentially allow players to be exposed to advertising in exchange for in-game material. This can, in turn, provide extra development capital for future game production, and even expand production outward from there. Imagine getting more of your favorite games, since developers now have an incentive to produce more. The more games produced, the more potential ad revenue is on hand, and the more ad revenue is available, the more reason to produce content. It's a virtuous cycle that works wonders for the player.

It's a clever concept, and one that might well give the gaming industry a shot in the arm. Though only time will tell just how far it will ultimately go, the end result might give us all access to better titles developed more rapidly with a few ads thrown in for variety.