Battlefield 6 Campaign Has BF3 Connection You Might Have Missed

Battlefield 6‘s campaign incorporates some pretty significant callbacks to the events of past games, and in particular, Battlefield 3, with one of its missions planting the seeds of villainous organization Pax Armata. While having played past games in the series certainly isn’t a prerequisite to enjoying Battlefield 6, longtime fans may notice how the events of Battlefield 3 have carried over into the newest game’s campaign.

Launched on October 10, Battlefield 6 has seen huge player numbers on Steam that put it at or near the top of the list for the biggest games of 2025. On its launch date, more than 747,000 concurrent players were recorded on Steam, and though the game has been out for less than a week, its daily peaks have not dipped below 474,000.

Battlefield 3’s Story Heavily Influences the Battlefield 6 Experience

While the bulk of the fan base’s attention has been directed at the game’s various competitive team-based multiplayer modes, Battlefield 6 also features a nine-mission campaign that pits players against Pax Armata, a technologically superior private military force that plays outside the rules of warfare. This new threat provides the campaign with a convenient villain in the wake of NATO’s collapse. But, as pointed out by ComicBook, one thing players may not know is that Henry Blackburn, the protagonist and playable character for the majority of Battlefield 3‘s campaign, was tied up in a mission that led to Pax Armata’s rise through its leader, Alexander Kincaid.

During Battlefield 6‘s Night Raid mission, Dagger 13 Master Sgt. Haz Carter recounts, from his own perspective, the tale originally told in the similarly titled Night Shift, a stealth mission near the end of Battlefield 3. In that mission, Blackburn attempts to capture the antagonistic Faruk Al-Bashir, leader of the People’s Liberation and Resistance. But while Blackburn was pulling off heroic feats, Carter was faring more poorly, with his unit cornered by an enemy battalion. Kincaid, the leader of an SAS unit that was with Carter, went back to help his men, but Carter pulled his forces out of the battlefield without him, presumably leaving Kincaid and his unit to die and lighting the spark that led him to his leadership role in Pax Armata.

While Blackburn has never made a prominent appearance in a game since Battlefield 3, the lore surrounding him is growing. After his dishonorable discharge following the events of Battlefield 3, it’s learned in the campaign of Battlefield 4 that he has come to lead his own private military organization, offering security services in Europe and possibly developing new weapons for the Russian military. Considering that he’s still around for the events of Battlefield 2042 as founder of the Arkangel Corporation, it’s likely that Battlefield 6 won’t be the last game in which players hear mention of his name.

Released

October 10, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact

Developer(s)

Battlefield Studios