A 2013 interview with Call of Duty film director Peter Berg, in which he called those who played war games such as Call of Duty “weak” and “pathetic”, has recently resurfaced, leading to plenty of discussion amongst the series’ fans.
While it’s over a decade old at this point, Berg certainly had some choice words. At the time, he said “the only people that I give a Call of Duty get-out-of-jail-free card to is the military”, and implored gamers to get outside and do something more worthwhile with their time. Needless to say, some have now started to question if he is the right person to be helming, of all things, a Call of Duty film adaptation.
Over the weekend, ResetEra user Neat shared the original 2013 interview from Esquire, in which the publication called Berg a “public advocate of American manhood”. In this piece, Berg – whose other director credits include the Rhianna-starring military sci-fi flop, Battleship, and Patriots Day, a film about the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 – discussed his opinion that America had gone soft.
“I just think that we live in a culture where everybody gets a trophy, you know? The idea that you can come in last in a soccer league or a flag football league and you get a trophy as a kid, I don’t know that that’s necessarily the right way to treat competition. I think that we generally eat poorly as a country. We don’t exercise enough. We’re entitled. We expect a lot without necessarily being willing to give much,” he said.
“One of the many reasons I’m so attracted to that Navy SEAL community is the work ethic and the code that they live by. That’s not a political code. It’s a way of life. It’s a belief that you should live life hard, and you should experience life, and you should participate actively in your life. And make choices and live by them.”
When asked if the likes of Navy SEALs who he admires so much play war games such as Call of Duty, he said “some” do, but he tells them he “[thinks] it’s pathetic”. Berg added: “I think anyone that sits around playing video games for four hours… It’s weak. Get out, do something.”
Now, again, this interview did take place in 2013, and several users on the ResetEra thread have reasoned that these comments from Berg are over a decade old – and, as such, that he may well have changed his belief about games and the people who play them. “If he says it again it’s a problem, but this is a decade ago. People can say harmlessly (repeat, harmlessly) stupid things a decade ago, because that’s plenty of time to grow out of it,” a reply from Jamesac68 reads.
Others, though, are less generous. “He’s free to have his opinions, but this is pretty eyebrow raising if he’s making this movie,” comes a response from LewieP. “And beyond that, there’s like a hundred better directors they could have picked, from a creative perspective.” There are similar sentiments across other social media platforms, as well. “Someone who talks like that about video games cannot understand or respect the source material,” X user @Lobo_Juegos wrote (translated by Eurogamer). “At CinemaCon 2026 he made it clear he wants ‘authenticity on a real level’, not Call of Duty’s spirit. If it’s good, it’ll be a good military action movie… but not a good CoD movie.”
Eurogamer has asked Berg’s agent for further comment on his past statements regarding games and Call of Duty.
The Call of Duty film was initially announced last year. Earlier this month it was announced the film will release on 30th June, 2028. At the time of this announcement, head of Activision and producer on the film Rob Kostich said: “I told everyone we were only going to make a movie if it’s right… We want to make sure that the authenticity of it is captured on a human level so that it feels really real and infuses that with epic scope.”
