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Xbox Trailer For Battlefield 2042 Partnership Hypes Up Sci-Fi Dystopia
The newest Xbox trailer for its Battlefield 2042 partnership hypes up sci-fi dystopia. Electronic Arts, the publisher of the game, endorsed Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S as Battlefield 2042's "official consoles" in a June press release. However, the newest installment of the Battlefield video game series is not exclusive to Xbox consoles. In fact, versions of the game will launch on both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. EA and Microsoft's new partnership may indicate that Xbox players will have access to exclusive in-game content or the optimized performance of the game. The upcoming first-person shooter video game is slated to be released next month, and Xbox has been building anticipation with several trailers.
While the 2002 original Battlefield 1942 was set in World War II, the newest game in the series is set 100 years later in 2042. In the game's three main gameplay modes (the classic multiplayer All-Out Warfare mode, the cooperative multiplayer Hazard Zone mode, and the customizable Portal mode), gamers on current-generation consoles will be able to play in combat teams totaling 128 players. Computer-controlled AI will fill in any empty spots on servers so that players will be able to face a huge number of enemy combats at any given time. As the game will take place in the future, players will have to circumnavigate a life-threatening climate in addition to surviving the ongoing war between the U.S. and Russia.
A new trailer for the partnership between Xbox and Battlefield 2042 showcases the gaming possibility of the future with sci-fi dystopian undertones. Titled "Imagine the future of gaming," the trailer proposes a future of games in 2042 that are "powered by quantum technology" and are "indistinguishable from reality." Humans can play via a holographic interface with "one quintillion floating-point operations per second" and a "living thinking AI." The trailer shows the inside mechanisms of a supposed future Xbox controller and ends by showing the same future gamer from the last Battle 2042 trailer. In small lettering throughout the trailer, two disclaimers appear at the bottom: "Gameplay Imagined" and "What if it could be compatible with smart optical appliances and neural interfaces? The possibilities are endless."
Considering the fact that Battlefield 2042 takes place in a war-torn climate apocalypse, imagining a future of gaming in that universe seems slightly ridiculous. People living in such a collapsing society would presumably not have the funds nor the time to play video games. Fans were quick to point out this oddity along with the fact that the original title of the video was misspelled at release as "Image the future of gaming." The spelling error has since been corrected. Furthermore, the suggestion of a megacorporation like Microsoft being able to access neural interfaces (i.e., accessing the brains of its players to some extent) is a little terrifying.
Despite Battlefield 2042's climate crisis setting, it seems that the future of gaming looks good for Xbox according to this trailer. Perhaps this trailer is a hint of events to come--hopefully only the future gaming-related ones and not the apocalypse.
Battlefield 2042 will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 19, 2021.
