If you want an indication that Battlefield 6 does have Call of Duty a bit spooked this year, look no further than a recent update from the game that seems to fall in line with that release.
Even before Battlefield 6, there have been complaints that Call of Duty was pushing things too far with its Fortnite-ish crossover skins, which may have started with things like Michael Myers but have now gone all the way to Jay and Silent Bob, Seth Rogen, Beavis and Butthead and American Dad. Now, Call of Duty is walking that back by now disallowing a transfer of skins between Black Ops 6 and 7 to retain a more realistic atmosphere. Here’s what they posted yesterday:
“Operators, Operator Skins, and Weapons from Black Ops 6 will no longer carry forward into Black Ops 7.”
“Black Ops 7 needs to feel authentic to Call of Duty and its setting. That is why Black Ops 6 Operator and Weapon content will not carry forward to Black Ops 7. Double XP tokens and GobbleGums will still carry forward, because we recognize your time and progression are important.”
“This change applies only to Black Ops 7. Call of Duty: Warzone is not affected, and all your Black Ops 6 content stays usable there.”
The implication there is that the devs are admitting that Black Ops 6 did not feel authentic to Call of Duty and its setting, which I mean, is true. This statement comes in the wake of this one from DICE:
“It has to be grounded. That is what BF3 and BF4 was — it was all soldiers, on the ground,” design director Shashank Uchil told dbltap. “I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj. Let’s keep it real, keep it grounded.”
This may be viewed as a great move by many players, but there are others who are the ones who bought these skins who are now mad that they cannot transfer when they thought they were going to. That is not something Call of Duty usually does, but there’s certainly some friction there all the same.
There’s also the question of what this might do to revenue, as these crossovers kept coming for a reason, and that’s that people were buying them, however goofy they may have gotten. And we no longer know where “the line” is in terms of these crossovers. Will there be none? Would Michael Myers have been too goofy? Homelander? Or are we just talking about these recent extreme animated skins like Beavis and Butthead and American Dad? I doubt that all crossovers will cease from here, but we don’t know how “authentic” the shops are going to be from here yet.
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