The Battlefield franchise has built its reputation on sprawling maps, intense firefights, and absolute chaos in multiplayer battles. It’s a game for the tactically-minded chaos lovers, where planning and mayhem coexist like PB and jelly. However, one area where it absolutely does not have to channel chaos is its user interface (UI) design.
Recently, EA revealed the UI for Battlefield 6, and the community had… thoughts. And by “thoughts,” I mean an outpouring of pure, unfiltered frustration. The immediate hot take? It looks like someone on the development team took a hard look at Call of Duty’s UI and muttered, “Yeah, this’ll do,” before hitting copy-paste. Spoiler alert for EA? It doesn’t “do.”
First, let’s unpack the problem. At its core, the UI is supposed to be functional and immersive. It’s the bridge between gameplay and the player’s ability to experience it without doing mental gymnastics. With Battlefield 6’s UI, fans are feeling more disconnected than immersed.
The resemblance to Call of Duty’s flashy, cluttered, commercial-laden design is striking, and not in a good way. Think of easily engaging with clear squad menus, weapon loadouts, and game info. Now toss that all into a blender with “Buy new skins!” popups, overdesigned clutter, and an assault on your retina with neon. Voilà! Welcome to the joyride of complexity over usability that Battlefield 6’s UI offers. Fans have been quick to point out that Battlefield’s ease of navigation has been, for lack of a better phrase, tossed out the window.
One of the standout criticisms is that Battlefield 6’s UI feels amateur at best and pandering at worst. The Call of Duty influence is obvious—not subtly borrowed but downright yelled from the rooftops. Social media went ablaze with disgruntled players calling it, well, you guessed it, “a Call of Duty hand-me-down.”
Battlefield fans take pride in the game’s identity being distinct and unique, a stark alternative to the fast-twitch, blow-your-toe-off, candy-ridden world of CoD. Seeing Battlefield morph into what feels like a clone in progress is, to them, not just disappointing, but borderline sacrilegious. A lot of the frustration comes from a valid place too. Multiplayer performance can hinge on your ability to act swiftly, and the UI in its current form looks more like a wall to climb than a tool to use efficiently.
For the uninitiated, a strong UI in a game like Battlefield means clarity. It means easily navigating weapon loadouts, tweaking game settings, or team adjustments without peeling away at the game’s immersion. It shouldn’t feel like you’re trying to locate the hidden Easter eggs just to change your sensitivity settings.
The interface serves its best purpose when it’s intuitive, clean, and stays out of your way. Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 5 weren’t leaders in the UI Hall of Fame, but they got the job done with a sense of functionality. That’s why the Battlefield 6 UI’s erratic complexity sticks out like a sore thumb–it’s a step backward, not forward.
Now, many in the developer community know that UI designs are naturally iterative. The backlash has prompted EA to promise that they’re actively gathering feedback to improve the user interface. That’s good to hear, but fans have expressed how often feedback in early stages of development feels like hot air when unresolved issues rear their head in the final release.
If EA listens to their audience the way Battlefield strategies listen to well-placed sniper shots (aka not at all sometimes), there’s hope here. Developers need to strip down the UI, keeping elements useful and simple without throwing in a CoD-style digital mall display. Gamers don’t want aggressive promotions in the same space where the tactical gameplay decisions should take place.
When we talk about defining a franchise, we’re not just talking about its gameplay mechanics. Everything that makes you feel part of its identity—from the UI to the soundtrack—is key. For Battlefield 6, merging immersive warfare with usability is where the game’s UI needs to land, not in a chaotic, CoD-inspired, flashing-lights-extravaganza void.
Here’s a PSA for EA: Keep Battlefield, Battlefield. Use this backlash as an opportunity. Fans are talking because they care, and you’d be surprised how far a clean, user-friendly redesign would go.
Until then, we’ll be here, ready with pitchforks and memes.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!