After a rather heated exchange with someone on Twitter, decrying BioWare and EA's use of micro-transactions, lead producer on Anthem at BioWare, Michael Gamble, responded with "We aren’t going to add loot boxes. It serves no purpose." Re-iterating that cosmetic items like skins and so forth will be sold - but on a per item basis and not part of a randomised loot box style setup.

As to how much each item will cost at launch or whether or not it will seem overpriced remains to be seen. As of writing all post-launch content plans for Anthem are expected to be free. As a shared-world shooter meets action-RPG this of course also doesn't mean that Anthem won't feature in-game chests offering up random chances as loot - as those will be featured throughout in addition to item drops, resource nodes, and other objects to find in the world. As per the new free-roam gameplay video as seen below, courtesy of IGN.



Compared to the last action-packed video showcasing a full mission, this looks a little bland. But the focus on flying around for both exploration and combat could be the key thing that sets Anthem apart from other games.