10 Video Game Shopkeepers Who Sold You Utter Trash

Though the inclusion of microtransactions in video games isn't surprising to anyone anymore, they're more often than not cloistered away in their own impersonal nested menus that players can more-or-less avoid should they wish.

BioWare's recently-deceased Anthem took an entirely different approach, though, by actually selling them through an interactive NPC character who runs the Featured Store, a storefront where players can buy cosmetic armour items with both in-game currency and real-world money.

Rather cheekily, the merchant is named "Prospero," and so it's tough not to imagine EA bigwigs cackling with glee as they admire the cleverness of the shopkeeper's moniker.

Cosmetics aren't an inherently bad thing, but they do come with an added layer of ick when the game is making over-the-odds overtures to try and part you with real-life cash for silly nonsense like emotes and decals.

More bizarre is the fact that the store only offers a small number of items at any one time on a rotating basis, and so between this and the rather unappealing designs on offer, there's little but dime store kitsch to be bought.

The lackluster cosmetics being sold certainly didn't help the game's popularity any, that's for sure.