This fall will be an exciting season for gamers, with the release of such games as Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 from Treyarch coming on October 12th and the release of the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2 from Rockstar Games coming on October 26th, However, many gamers this season have turned a blind eye and forgot about another triple-A title coming; Battlefield 5 from DICE.

With Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 bringing back the futuristic setting but providing new tactical-based gameplay and Red Dead Redemption 2 providing an in-depth sequel to the award-winning predecessor of the same series, gamers are through the roof of excitement for these two titles.

However, many gamers this season have turned a blind eye and forgot about another triple-A title coming; Battlefield 5 from DICE.

Battlefield 5 is the next game in line for the Battlefield series, coming out on November 20th. With the setting taking place in World War II, gamers were excited about the setting. But, once the official reveal trailer dropped on May 23rd, people got upset and upset quickly. Why?

In the reveal trailer, gamers spotted a woman with a prosthetic arm that played a prominent role within the trailer.

Of course, this interpretation of World War II is significantly historically inaccurate. Scores of articles, YouTube videos, and other media released in the wake of the reveal trailer, calling Battlefield 5 “liberal propaganda” claimed that the developers of the game had “an SJW/liberal agenda”. Lots of people quickly lost interest because of this reveal trailer, and the trailer has received the most negative feedback of any other reveal of the entire Battlefield franchise.

Another part of the controversy is DICE’s initial response to the controversy of the trailer.

It started with the DICE developer Alan Kurtz saying, “I knew this was going to be a fight when I pushed for female soldiers in Battlefield. I have a daughter, and I don’t want to ever have to answer her question of ‘why can’t I make a character that looks like me?’ with ‘because you’re a girl. I fundamentally feel to my core this is the right way, and I will find myself on the right side of history.”

Supporting this claim by Kurtz, DICE’s chief design officer, Patrick Soderlund said in an interview with Gamasutra, “These are people who are uneducated—they don’t understand that this is a plausible scenario, and listen: this is a game,” he added. “And today gaming is gender-diverse, like it hasn’t been before. There are a lot of female people who want to play, and male players who want to play as a woman.”

Kurtz’ argument explains how he, as well as the developers at DICE, wants to have everyone included in the game, so that way nobody would feel left out in a WWII setting. Soderlunds argument, however, states that those who think women didn’t fight in WWII at all are uneducated, which to an extent they did, at least with the Soviets and some French resistance operatives.

However, gamers were furious with Soderlunds claim. Most called it quits there and made a firm stance on not only to not buy the game, but to continuously bash and hate on it. Multiple videos on Youtube and articles around the web have continuously pummeled Battlefields reputation, resulting in public outcry speaking against the game and it’s historical inaccuracies.

As for Patrick Soderlund, he has since resigned from his job as of August 14, 2018, ending his 12-year tenure at DICE.

As a result of such claims through DICE developers and for the features implemented in the game, analysts have predicted that Battlefield 5’s pre-orders are trailing behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 by a whopping 85%. Many gamers are holding off until release to see what the game has to offer, although most are simply saving their money for other titles this season.

All in all, Battlefield 5’s reputation has been garnished by the developers, implementing unrealistic features and cosmetics that do not line up with the time period, as well as condescending and purely selfish claims from the developers at DICE. However, despite these shortcomings, this writer thinks that it will still be a great game, possibly one of the best Battlefield titles in it’s 15 year history with the other gameplay features soon to be included.