Collab costumes in modern shooters are nothing new; Fortnite practically made half of its identity off of becoming a gaming melting pot, and Call of Duty's tone-deaf collaborations have become infamous in and out of the community. EA's shooter series has been slowly joining the front, to mixed success.
Battlefield 6 is in hot water after its most recent Medal of Honor collaboration ignored popular entries in the series that would have worked perfectly and instead added a set of World War 2-era gear. Battlefield as a series has carved its niche on a more direct, boots-on-the-ground aesthetic than its flashy contemporaries, which makes this flub of such an easy slam dunk all the more baffling.
This isn't the first controversy Battlefield 6 has walked into over its cosmetic bundles not fitting with the vision fans want from the game either. Just a few weeks ago, EA released a collab with the horror shooter franchise Dead Space, featuring sci-fi costumes and gun cosmetics that clash hard with the modern military setting of Battlefield 6.
This clash, combined with Dead Space's awkward current position as a franchise, left a sour taste in the mouths of fans of both games, and this Medal of Honor mashup feels much the same. The classic shooter franchise hasn't had a new entry since 2020, and that most recent drop was a VR title most won't get to play, so the series itself is in limbo.
Rather than celebrate its more recent entries that would have fit Battlefield 6's setting and style perfectly, DICE decided to swing hard for World War 2 nostalgia, adding costumes and weapons that stick out like a sore thumb amidst the slick modern gear and well-realized combat fatigues.
Through a cynical lens, it feels like Battlefield 6 is desperate for some of that wild crossover money that works so well to keep the lights on for Call of Duty and Fortnite, forgetting what the loyal fans the series has cultivated actually want from it. What could have been an easy win with fans of both franchises, EA has tripped up badly, letting detractors stick it to them more and more.
This desperate desire for tie-in collabs, whether the series works as a crossover or not, highlights an issue that has plagued plenty of long-running live-service style games in recent years. The need to constantly put out more and more outlandish cosmetics can lead to hard visual clashes, and a loss of what made a game unique in the first place in exchange for truly baffling visual choices.
Battlefield as a series has carved its niche on a more direct, boots-on-the-ground aesthetic than its flashy contemporaries, which makes this flub of such an easy slam dunk all the more baffling.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.dualshockers.com/battlefield-6-scores-own-goal-collabing-with-wrong-medal-of-honor/
