During the early hours of December 2, we got a preview of future Christmas-themed weekly rewards coming to Battlefield 2042, including a Santa / Santa Claus / Father Christmas appearance called ‘Father Winter’.
This reveal was met with virtually unanimous dislike from the gaming community.
Many modern games focus heavily on cosmetic rewards and microtransactions for players. As an example, look at the recent case of Halo Infinite. Even “serious” shooting games like Call of Duty now they offer a host of looks that don’t necessarily match your tone. Although many of the criticisms against the appearance of Santa Claus and other Christmas cosmetics are due to the contrast they have with the setting of Battlefield 2042, they are not the most important.
Most players are complaining because they think DICE is spending resources on creating cosmetics instead of fixing the myriad of bugs and problems.. These have resulted in “mostly negative” ratings on Steam..
DICE, game developers, have already responded to this little controversy via a Twitter thread. They clarify that elements such as the appearance of Father Winter have been in development for months and, although they now have other priorities, they will introduce them little by little. They also say they created “one time use” cosmetics that seek to “enhance fantasy” in special Portal Mode events. They will not affect other game modes.
