BioWare explains that Anthem will have paid cosmetics, but 'no loot boxes, or pay-for-power' advantages

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It looks like it has potential

EA’s conference has been…weird, to say the least. We got a huge Star Warsreveal in a really strange fireside chat format, footage of several greatlooking indies, and a bunch of marketing nonsense.

But EA of course finished things up with Anthem, its prized would-be Destiny-killer, and it’s still looking pretty impressive. BioWare’s Casey Hudson took the stage to re-iterate that Anthemis a shared world where “everyone will be seeing the same thing, including a day/night cycle.” Customization options for the Javelin suit are also shown off, and “cosmetic/vanity items” are confirmed, with no loot boxes or pay-for-power advantages.

BioWare and EA have been waffling back and forth on whatmicrotransactions might be present in Anthem, and the whole Star Wars Battlefront 2debacle clearly had an impact on their potential loot box plans. Still, paying $60 for a game, presumably for expansions, and for microtransactions on top might piss off some potential players — it’s the Destinymodel! BioWare had the chance to say on-stage “there will be no paid transactions of any kind!” and eat Bungie’s lunch, but it didn’t.

Note that all of these cool looking features are just that — cool looking on paper. We saw a lotof awesome concepts for the original Destinyand almost none of their visions were actually fulfilled. BioWare has a lot riding on this though and I doubt it’ll be rushing into this unprepared.