Recently, Activision Blizzard unveiled their latest Call of Duty game which introduces new advanced warfare and an updated graphical engine to the agglomerate and repeated game franchise. As the hype roared around Call of Duty, a lot waited penitently for their competitor, Battlefield, to release this year’s new game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooyjaVdt-jA
On Friday, May 25th, EA released their world primer official Battlefield V trailer, which came with an unapproved and shocking surprise.
Attracting nearly eight million viewers on YouTube within three days, fans have heavily disliked the new Battlefield V trailer for their new woman appearance in the World War II setting game.
Heavily highlighted in the trailer and appearing as the main solider for Battlefield V, the game displays female fighters and a female lead solider as the main character for the game’s single player aspect. At one point the female lead is shown killing a man with a cricket bat while having a prosthetic arm.
As the trailer gains more views, the dislike bar begins to outweigh the like bar more and more with the YouTube commenters displaying strong backlash to what is otherwise a well-respected game; a game that EA has previously been wildly successful in.
“It finally happened. Battlefield has [become] Liberal! This Political Correct game is almost as bad as Call of Duty WW2” one YouTube commenter wrote. “Next trailer they show us a Battlefield with wheel chairs” said another.
As with most backlashes nowadays, people have stormed Twitter with a new hashtag telling people not purchase the game and to stay far away, calling it #notmybattlefield.
Battlefield One was the last Battlefield game and was set in World War I, something a video game rarely does. Battlefield One was successful and quickly won the hearts of gamers for it’s new horse fighting, retro graphics, and new gameplay.
Following World War I, it was expected for EA to continue Battlefield with World War II, but nobody was expecting women to appear in the upcoming game. World War II was the deadliest war in existence, there were over 23 million military deaths with the U.S. having 416,800 deaths. Out of those 416,800 military deaths, only 16 women died.
Having no showcasing war experience, it is illogical that EA believes they hold the right to change history and turn their franchise political, which crates massive backlash in their own community.
Gamers want games that are accurate and enjoyable, not something where they are incorrect, misleading, and based on opinion. I also expect gamers do not want to feel the gilt of shooting women in their online wargame, even knowing it’s just a game.
EA recently underwent the worst backlash when they released a Reddit statement on how microtransactions work in their Battlefront II Star Wars game. When a gamer asked EA why they had to pay a boatload of money to unlock a character in the game, EA responded saying that it was a pay-to-win game.
EA’s comment became and currently is the most downvoted comment on Reddit with 668 thousand downvotes.
When EA was asked about the Battlefield V backlash, they responded that they didn’t care of the community’s opinion and that the backlash meant nothing. They will continue to launch the game with no changes to the character creation and selection.
“Player choice and female playable characters are here to stay,” said the Oskar Gabrielson who is the game’s developer general manager.
“We want Battlefield V to represent all those who were a part of the greatest drama in human history,” following with: “Our commitment as a studio is to do everything we can to create games that are inclusive and diverse.”
I guess EA didn’t get the memo that World War II was fought by nearly exclusively men, especially in the actual ‘battlefield’. Their diversity and player choice are based on EA’s staff’s political base as companies are now showcasing political favorite in the U.S.
It should be known that companies that attempt to politicalize their opinions into their product will find trouble when it comes to launching their next product. Instead of making those happy, it alienates their own user-base and stops those from purchasing their product.
At $60 per purchase and currently 296 thousand dislikes, if everyone who disliked refused to not buy the game, EA would lose $17,760,000.
EA has never had a good reputation and this latest Battlefield V trailer continues to infuriate their userbase, who are demanding change or an alternative to the poor customer supporting game giant.
Releasing on October 19th, Battlefield V will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4, but it will be interesting to see who bothers to purchase a game that pushes a political agenda.
© 2018 Justin Vendette