Battlefield 2042 players furious over ‘Fortnite-style’ Santa Claus skin

With the holiday season upon us, many games have started rolling out Christmas-themed content. Battlefield 2042 is the latest of these games, offering a new Santa Claus skin for players to unlock. However, fans have reacted angrily to its reveal.

The launch of Battlefield 2042 has been notoriously shaky. After a three-year wait for the latest installment of the shooter series, fans have been critical of the bugs and lack of new content at launch.

Devs have been hard at work ever since to make 2042 the game that the community had been waiting for, and unlockable skins are one of the ways they have tried to make good with the fans.

However, one particular cosmetic that has been revealed early has sparked a furious reaction from players – a Christmas-themed Santa Claus skin.

The December 2 patch seems to have accidentally shown off a handful of cosmetics that were due in the game later on in the month. One of these was the ‘Father Winter’ skin, DICE’s attempt at getting the community into the festive spirit.

Despite previous calls for Battlefield 2042 to increase the rollout of content, many players took to social media to express their anger. Reddit user SoyUnGregorio started a thread, asking “DICE what are you doing with the game?”

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The general consensus was that the cosmetic is too similar to the type of skin that a game like Fortnite would include. It has been seen as a step too far away from the “mature,” gritty tone that Battlefield is known for.

“They’re literally going after the Fortnite demographic; unbelievable,” said one angry user. “Just why? People are unhappy enough as is with the tone compared to the setting,” argued another.

Others felt that this was DICE attempting to draw attention away from Battlefield 2042’s shortcomings with “goofy” content. “Put that manpower into fixing the game/generating content that is desperately needed.”

In some cases, players actually thought the skin was a joke, before realizing it was a very real cosmetic coming to the game. “When people talked about EA/DICE introducing Santa Claus and clown skins to Battlefield I thought we were all just joking around,” commented one fan.

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Holiday content is nothing new in video games, and Battlefield 2042 certainly won’t be the last to incorporate festive cosmetics. But the community is clearly unhappy that this is the way their beloved military shooter has gone.

It may not be as game-breaking as some of the other issues in Battlefield 2042, but many fans will no doubt be hoping that this isn’t a sign of things to come.