Anthem got a lot of negative attention before it’s launch and it wasn’t even for the actual game but the flak was drawn on by the game’s association with EA. Microtransactions are a huge part of games nowadays and while players do not mind cosmetic items to be up for sale.
EA has a bad history of launching game, every still remembers how EA mishandled the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 microtransactions with adding pay to play scenario which ruined the game as players had to grind for ungodly hours just to be able to play the game. BioWare who along with EA assured players that the microtransactions would be handled carefully keeping the incident in mind and assured players that only cosmetic items would be up for sale and the rest could be achievable in-game by playing regularly.
This seemed to calm the players down and a quote from a direct source seemed good enough, now that the game has finally launched we can assure that microtransactions are mainly focused on microtransactions.
There is a stock of items for players to choose from if they like any, which will keep shuffling every 11 days in order to bring newer items to the game and items can be bought by Coins in the game or Shards (premium currency).
Apart from this, there are other items which can be bought with real money
For Sale
Emotes
Players can purchase Emotes for their javelins as a celebratory dance when completing a mission or just for goofing around, the emotes can be used for in-game communications and adds a bit of silliness which is nice to the game.
Materials
As seen in the demo, when customizing your javelin you will have a ton of options to choose and design your javelin to make it unique and look exactly the way you want it to. Materials can be either bought with in-game coins or shards and this will get you a distinctive look.
Armor packs
This is the biggest aspect of the game as armor packs deal in toughening up your javelin and making it behave and operate the way you want. This includes arm, chest, and leg armour pieces for a specific Javelin, which you can equip in the Forge after purchase.
Earning Coins
You can earn in-game coins by completing the missions and as a Freelancer you are sure to never face a shortage of missions, but in case if you wish to speed things up and invest real money into the game to buy gear or to customize your javelin you can buy Shards which are only available through the Origin store.
The current prices at the time of the launch are as follows
500 Shards: $4.99/£3.99
1050 Shards: $9.99/£7.99
2200 Shards: $19.99/£15.99
4600 Shards: $39.99/£31.99
The more Shards you buy the more discounts you get and this is a trend seen in many games.
Alternatively, you can check out a video by @Anthem_Central
The video goes into depth and carefully explains how the delicate microtransactions are handled in the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KmweJZez2E
Anthem will be available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on the 22nd of February 2019.
Also Read: Anthem Players Face Log-in Failures During Launch For PC and Xbox
