The vibe shift on goofy cosmetics in live service games is impossible to ignore at this point. Call of Duty has issued a full reversal on its plans to allow fantastical skins in Black Ops 7 after heavy backlash, and today, Battlefield 6 developers reaffirmed their commitment to not ending up like Fortnite.
"We want to be a gritty, realistic shooter," Battlefield 6 technical director Christian Buhl told IGN in a recent interview.
"Other games can and should be whatever they want to be, right? [laughs] Like we're not, I don't know... Fortnite is pretty goofy, and that game is pretty good. So, I think where we end up is we're pretty happy with where we are. We are a gritty, grounded, realistic shooter. That's what we intend to be, and that's what the game is going to look like for a while."
The "for a while" bit does give me pause—it would be the unconventional choice for an FPS that plans to sell loads of cosmetics to forever resist crossover opportunities in the name of aesthetics, and I don't exactly trust EA to leave money on the table. Who's to say Battlefield Studios' definition of "gritty and realistic" doesn't change over time?
But console combat designer Matthew Nickerson, also interviewed by IGN, made BF Studio's position sound firm.
"We’re not chasing trends. We’re not chasing other products," he said.
Nickerson added that if you want to get an idea of what Battlefield 6's skins will be like, take a look at the Road to Battlefield 6 event happening in Battlefield 2042.
"Those are 30 premium skins that will give a player a taste of what is more to come when we talk about cosmetics in the Battlefield 6 product line. Generally, I think, from a design perspective, we’re doing us. We’re staying in our lane, doing us at the end of the day."
Your tastes will vary, but the cosmetics in the Battlefield 2042 event are what I'd describe as "pre-Fortnite" levels of normal for a military shooter: Colorful but muted, focused on camo patterns and tactical gear. Instead of, say, transforming your operator into a fire-breathing dragon, expect to see BF6 operators with different hermes and tanks with orange tiger camo.
Normal is where the wind is blowing, and there's no better indication than how strongly Call of Duty is steering away from its garish backlog of cosmetics for Black Ops 7. Not only will future skins adhere to the game's art style, but even previously announced Vault Edition skins have been changed to reflect its new direction.
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