EA's conference has been...weird, to say the least. We got a huge Star Wars reveal in a really strange fireside chat format, footage of several great looking indies, and a bunch of marketing nonsense.
But EA of course finished things up with Anthem, their prized would-be Destiny-killer, and it's still looking pretty impressive. BioWare's Casey Hudson took the stage to re-iterate that Anthem is a shared word 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 what microtransactions might be present in Anthem, and the whole Star Wars Battlefront 2 debacle 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 Destiny model!
Note that all of these cool looking features are just that -- cool looking on paper. We saw a lot of awesome concepts for the original Destiny and almost none of their visions were actually fulfilled. BioWare has a lot riding on this though and I doubt they'll be rushing into this unprepared.
via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/bioware-explains-that-anthem-will-have-paid-cosmetics-but-no-loot-boxes-or-pay-for-power-advantages-506965.phtml