‘I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj’: Battlefield 6 design designer says its skins will be ‘grounded’

The design director for Battlefield 6 says the game’s DLC skins will be “grounded” and will reflect the game’s setting, unlike Call of Duty.

Speaking to DBLTAP at a Battlefield 6 event in London, design director Shashank Uchil was asked about the cosmetic skins planned for the game and how they would look.

Uchil replied by stressing that they had to fit the game’s theme, gesturing to nearby artwork showing soldiers looking at a wartorn New York City.

“It has to be grounded,” Uchil explained. “That is what Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 was – it was all soldiers, on the ground. It’s going to be like this,” he added, pointing to the artwork.

“I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj,” he noted. “Let’s keep it real, keep it grounded.”

Although Uchil didn’t mention Call of Duty by name, the reference to Minaj is undoubtedly a reference to Activision‘s game, which has featured numerous crossover Operator skins (including Minaj) in recent years.

While the Call of Duty series has featured numerous celebrity appearances and crossovers in the past, the number of occurrences has risen sharply in recent years, most notably in the form of Operator skins allowing the player to play as various celebrities and characters.

In the past few years, crossover skins added to COD have included Lionel Messia, Paul Pogba, Neymar Jr, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NBA star Kevin Durant, superheroes from The Boys, Snoop Dogg, Lara Croft, Spawn, Ash from The Evil Dead, Skeletor from Masters of the Universe, Lilith from Diablo, Paul Atreides from Dune, Cheech and Chong, various WWE wrestlers, Michael Myers, The Terminator, Squid Game characters, Seth Rogen, Jay and Silent Bob, Beavis and Butt-Head and characters from American Dad.

EA executive vice president Vince Zampella says he considers Battlefield 6 a “spiritual successor” to fan favourites Battlefield 3 and 4.

“Being the spiritual successor to [Battlefield] 3 and 4 is how we look at it,” he told the Friends Per Second podcast. “What would that next spiritual successor kind of look like? That’s where we started.

“We have people who have been on Battlefield since the beginning, and then we have a lot of new studios, a lot of new blood to come in and look at it in a different way. It’s important, and those Battlefield fans, they know that the core DNA has to be there. We have to get those large-scale maps right.”