When I saw that the new Battlefield 6 trailer featured several celebrities – Zac Efron, Morgan Wallen, Jimmy Butler and Paddy Pimblett – I thought, “Oh they’re doing a Call Of Duty trailer.” Activision’s franchise has done a bunch of live-action trailers over the years, including the famous Robert Downey Jr. ad for Black Ops 2, which also featured Jack Black and a host of other famous faces.
Turns out, this is a humorous jab at Battlefield’s biggest rival. The four celebrity operators get a moment of looking badass as they walk across a bridge with Smashing Pumpkin’s “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” playing in the background. “Showtime,” Efron says. Each gets a closeup. “Sound check,” Wallen drawls. Efron says, “Okay boys, we’re here to do one thing…” It’s hard to see, but up in the lefthand corner behind them you can see a rocket incoming at this point. “And one thing–” The rocket hits the bridge, right in the center of the squad, blasting them to smithereens. We see a boot fly through the smoke and debris.
A handful of regular live-action operators appears. “Who was that?” one asks. “Doesn’t matter,” another says. “Let’s move.”
It’s a funny trailer that takes a shot not only at Call Of Duty’s live-action trailers but also at that franchise’s various crossovers and celebrity skins, something Battlefield Studios says Battlefield 6 will avoid. The popularity of this decision and the continued outcry from Call Of Duty fans has led Activision to change course on carrying Black Ops 6 skins forward into Black Ops 7, though whether we’ll see a real reversal in Fortnite-like cartoon skins in favor of a mil-sim aesthetic remains to be seen.
On the other hand, I love the Robert Downey Jr. Black Ops 2 trailer. It’s one of the best live-action trailers ever made, and it’s very tongue-in-cheek and silly and over-the-top on purpose. Call Of Duty has many of the best live-action video game trailers, period, including the wonderful Replacer ads starring Peter Stormare (who reprised his Black Ops 2 character for Black Ops 6).
It’s also ironic that this trailer came out just a week or so after I wrote about how the Battlefield 6 campaign trailer was exactly the kind of thing Call Of Duty fans would love to see: Gritty, realistic military action.
When we talk about Battlefield and Call Of Duty and the rivalry between these franchises, it’s kind of like how we talk about the console wars between Xbox and PlayStation, but it’s a bit of a false dichotomy. You can enjoy both! For my part, I’m excited that we’re getting Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 around the same time. They’ll scratch very different itches. Other than being military first-person shooters, these two video game franchises couldn’t be more different.
In fact, I wish the trailer had included more Battlefield-related stuff, like focusing on the perspective of the Medic rezzing fallen soldiers. Still, it’s a solid and funny trailer with a good-natured ribbing of Call Of Duty. The best outcome here is that both games are a big success and the positive feedback Battlefield 6 gets pushes Activision to seriously dial back the zany operator skins and return to a more coherent aesthetic – or, alternatively, give players the option to toggle these skins on and off, which is an option for players when it comes to the often distracting “dismemberment effects”.
Battlefield 6 launches on October 10th. Black Ops 7 comes out just over a month later on November 14th.
