Let me set the scene for you. It’s 2026, I’m still scrolling my phone at 2 a.m. like a responsible adult, and I get hit with a memory grenade: back in May 2025, Activision and Square Enix decided to throw 2B, 9S, and a pile of angry Machine Lifeforms into Call of Duty: Mobile alongside the Season 5 update. I went in expecting a cash grab. I came out genuinely wondering why this kind of anime-adjacent madness doesn’t happen more often in the mainline Call of Duty games. Yeah, I said it.
So let’s talk about what actually went down in that crossover. The limited-time game mode threw players into a war-torn region against a horde of Machine Lifeforms, those poor, rusty, slightly philosophical robot enemies from the NieR series. If you cleared the mode, you could unlock a 9S skin for Ryotaro "Kui Ji" Nagashima, plus a few weapons. Not bad for free. I’ll be honest, I did not expect CoD Mobile to hand out a genuinely cool operator skin without demanding my firstborn child or a battle pass loan. The mode itself was chaotic in the best way, like someone put a NieR raid inside a Call of Duty map and forgot to tell the balance team.
Now, the premium side. If you wanted to empty your wallet with purpose, there were two NieR-themed Draw banners. One offered a 2B skin for Lizbeth "Kestrel" Warnholdt. The other brought a Commander White outfit for Fiona St. George. Some melee weapons from NieR: Automata were tucked into those Draws too. That’s where my restraint left the chat, even though I knew the odds were about as friendly as a Machine Lifeform on a bad day.
What made this event work, at least for me, was that it wasn’t just a skin drop disguised as an event. There was actual new content, and a decent chunk of it wasn’t locked behind a paywall. That matters. Call of Duty has built a reputation for unusual crossovers over the last several years, and plenty of players roll their eyes because these collabs can trample the series’ immersion and realism. But NieR: Automata and Call of Duty have almost nothing in common, and yet the crossover still clicked. Maybe it’s the shared love of stylish violence and existential dread. I don’t know. All I know is I was running around with a 9S skin feeling way too invested in a robot war.
Here’s the thing: CoD Mobile has always been more open to Eastern IPs than its console siblings. The mainline Call of Duty titles mostly flirt with Western franchises, while CoD Mobile often hosts events with anime-adjacent or JRPG-adjacent series. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, though. CoD Mobile is made by TiMi Studios, a Chinese subsidiary of Tencent. So when the game suddenly throws Ghost in the Shell, Girls' Frontline, or Ling Cage at you, it makes sense. The studio is aiming at Asian audiences, and honestly, it works.
But there’s a weird catch. Many of those anime-themed crossovers only appeared in Asian territories. The international version of CoD Mobile often missed out. Korean and Chinese players would get these cool events, while global players were left staring at a loading screen like a kid outside a candy store. Even when the global edition eventually got one of these events, it was usually added years later. A little late, but thanks, I guess?
That inconsistency comes down to publishing. Call of Duty Mobile is operated by different companies around the world. Activision publishes the global edition, but Garena, Tencent, and VMG Corporation handle other versions in certain countries. And out of all those companies, Activision seems to be the one most allergic to adding anime-adjacent IPs to its CoD games. That’s frustrating, because Eastern franchises are no longer niche in the West. We’re here. We’re ready. We just want more 2B and fewer generic soldier skins.
If I had one request for 2026 and beyond, it would be this: do the NieR thing again. Not just in Call of Duty Mobile, but in the mainline CoD titles too. Let console players experience the weird joy of a JRPG crossover without having to switch regions or wait three years. The NieR collab proved it can feel coherent and fun, not just like a marketing boardroom spat out a trend report. So yes, I’m still thinking about that 2B skin. And no, I’m not sorry.