Bioware confirms Anthem vanity chests won't contain armour and the community is p**sed
Anthem players have just had confirmation that the Elysian Stronghold Caches in this month's update won't contain armour, and they claim they were misled.
The miscommunication seems to have stemmed from both a livestream comment that implied new armour sets would be available in the chests, as well as a tweet from Bioware lead producer, Ben Irving.
Irving was asked when Anthem players could expect to be able to earn/ acquire armour sets in the game, and he replied, saying, "Elysian chests should be up next week."
He later clarified that he had misread the question, and was referring to vanity items, as opposed to armour packs.
Following the mix-up, another Twitter user weighed in on the situation, saying that while the studio never stated that armour would be in the stronghold chests, it should have been aware that the community thought otherwise, and did nothing to clear this up at the time.
Global community lead Andrew Johnson responded, saying, "Sorry you’re disappointed, man. We are aware the community wants to see more armor sets. It’s not something anyone is trying to hold back. Some things just take more time."
The news about the armour has apparently infuriated the playerbase.
"The next update was looking good, but now that there will be no new cosmetics I’m putting the controller down," said the OP in similarly titled subreddit.
Commentors in another thread are accusing Bioware of holding back the content in an attempt to wring more money from players.
"This game looks like it has been created in a vacuum. Just look at the competition and past games in the looter shooters genre of what's out there and you will see why people are frustrated and disappointed about Anthem," writes redditor u/Wytness.
"Division 2 is fully functioning and has plenty of cosmetics being dropped for free. Warframe, a free to play game, has more content and cosmetic options. Borderlands 2 a game that was released in 2012 has more content. With Borderlands 3 announcement right around the corner and with the cosmetic chests not including armor sets, if Anthem continues to ignore it's competition more and more players will ignore it."
Bioware shared Anthem's 90-day roadmap in February, and this month will see the fist update of Act 1: Echoes of Reality roll out, which will include a bunch of new cosmetics in the Elysian Stronghold Caches, as well as new missions, rewards, and more.
The game has recently been rebalanced following complaints about loot drop rates, which caused quite the kerfuffle.
Riling up the community again, so soon after resolving that issue, is just bad luck for Bioware. The studio will need to communicate its plans for armour and possibly reconsider the decision to not include it as a drop in order to placate players.