Picture it: celebrities gracing the trailer of some live-action Call of Duty launch special. Maybe you recall the 2011 Modern Warfare 3 trailer, with Jonah Hill and Sam Worthington: the veteran and the noob.
Essentially, some form of celebrity collaboration has been featured in almost every Call of Duty game since around 2010. If you're unaware of what the Battlefield 6 trailer showcases, I recommend watching it before I discuss it, so I don't spoil anything. Once you've done that, go ahead and keep reading!
NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler, country artist Morgan Wallen, UFC jokester Paddy Pimblett, and MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss 2017 nominee Zach Efron take center stage in the middle of a good ole' Predator Missile strike. Yet another knock at Call of Duty, at least, in my opinion.
Two of them don't even have any lines, making it the celebrity dump on Call of Duty even better. Honestly, even after someone spoiled what happened for me, I still cried with laughter when I watched it for the first time.
The trailer arrives less than a week after the Black Ops 7 gameplay reveal, which featured Michael Rooker, Milo Ventimiglia, and Frankie Adams. Ouch.
I can't even remember the number of times Call of Duty has used Eminem in one of its trailers. Is it three, maybe ten times? If it wasn't for the annual CoD trailer mixed with another Eminem song, would Eminem still have a career? (I kid, top 5 rapper on just about every person's list)
Zombie modes alone are notorious for featuring celebrities like Danny Trejo, Michael Rooker (again!), Robert Englund, Ron Perlman, Kiefer Sutherland, and numerous other actors whose names I've long since forgotten. Needless to say, CoD is a celebrity worship platform.
That's all before we get into the latest kerfuffle of Call of Duty skins that include Seth Rogen and Beavis and Butt-head. Battlefield is taking prime shots while Call of Duty is busy trying to respawn from the ashes of community backlash.
Although let's not pretend Battlefield hasn't had its fair share of celebrity use before.
Hell, how can anyone forget Snoopp Dogg smoking a blunt during the Battlefield One gameplay event? Even Battlefield's last entry used Michael Kenneth Williams as the character, Irish, a former character in Battlefield 4 as well. Rest in peace, Omar Little.
Let's not kid ourselves; many other developers are also incorporating a multitude of celebrities into their games. Look at Cyberpunk, or anything Kojima touches.
If it weren't for JK Simmons, we'd have never been graced by Cave Johnson.
The battle of realistic expectations
Battlefield has promised the community that it won't launch any cosmetic bundles that make use of celebrities, cartoon characters, or other out-of-world experiences that remove players from the reality of real warfare. At least, things that break that immersion entirely.
In response to community backlash, Call of Duty has also promised a more realistic approach to its cosmetic packs as well. They recently announced they even cancelled some planned collaborations with brands for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
How long will the realism approach last? I feel like I've heard that from half a dozen companies over my 30+ gaming career.
Personally, I've played and purchased every Call of Duty since 2003, but stopped after the release of Modern Warfare 2. Something inside of me was finally done with the franchise.
Since then, I've jumped into games like Rainbow Six Siege, Rust, and other competitive or PvP-oriented games. I even put over a dozen hours into the Battlefield 6 beta.
With that said, the Black Ops 7 trailer actually looked good to me. I'm one of the few people who miss the jetpacks and what my fellow Unc-status gamers call "zoomer" movement.
Whatever the case may be, we have less than two weeks of waiting time left before Battlefield 6 drops and another month after that for Black Ops 7 to see who the king of FPS gaming in 2025 will be. Will the Zoomer or Boomer movement win out?
Did you like the Battlefield 6 trailer? Where do you stand on the use of celebrities? Let us know in the comments or
Follow Windows Central on Google News to keep our latest news, insights, and features at the top of your feeds!
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
