Battlefield 6’s first open beta weekend has been a monumental success, breaking records and pulling in a massive crowd of players eager to see if this is finally the year EA’s shooter dethrones Call of Duty. Yet, despite overwhelming praise for the gameplay, a single, infuriating flaw has united fans in outrage a clunky, uninspired user interface that many say is a carbon copy of Call of Duty’s most despised menu system.
The controversy mirrors the backlash Activision has been facing for years. Ever since Modern Warfare 2 in 2022 introduced its “streamlined” hub-based UI, Call of Duty fans have been begging for the classic, clean vertical menu to return. Instead, Activision doubled down, pushing a design meant to funnel every game into its central Call of Duty HQ hub. This shift brought endless frustration and a flood of negative feedback from long-time players.
Now, Battlefield 6 seems to have stepped on the same landmine. A post on the game’s subreddit calling the UI “trash” exploded with over 12,000 upvotes and more than 2,000 comments. Fans describe the menus as “Netflix-ified” and “controller-friendly” in the worst possible way a grid of oversized tiles better suited to a streaming service than a tactical shooter. Players claim that if you swapped the menus between Battlefield 6 and the last few Call of Duty titles, you’d hardly notice a difference.
One user summed up the sentiment perfectly, calling it “CODified.” Another pointed out that the style strips away the unique personality of the Battlefield series, replacing it with a generic interface that could belong to any modern live-service title. While EA has not yet implemented anything as convoluted as Call of Duty HQ, the fear among fans is that this is the first step toward an even more bloated system.
The irony is that, aside from the UI controversy, Battlefield 6 is in a stronger position than it has been in years. The beta peaked at over 521,000 concurrent players on Steam, surpassing the Call of Duty HQ app’s 491,000 a figure that combines multiple games, including Warzone. EA has confirmed this was the biggest open beta in Battlefield history, and many players agree the gameplay feels fresh, fast, and competitive enough to finally give Call of Duty serious trouble.
But the frustration over the menus is not going away. For many fans, Battlefield is about immersion, clarity, and a distinct identity qualities they feel are undermined when the interface looks like a copy-paste job from its biggest rival. The demand is clear: EA must listen to its community and bring back a UI that feels like Battlefield, not a streaming app clone.
If Battlefield 6 truly wants to capitalize on its momentum and finally stand toe-to-toe with Call of Duty, fixing this could be the first big step. Otherwise, the series risks alienating a player base that has shown they are ready to return but only if the Battlefield they love is still intact.
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