GM Paid for the Hummer EV to Be In 'Warzone 2.0' and It Is Showcasing Its Killing Powers

The most prominent product placement in the new Call of Duty Warzone 2.0 is the GMC Hummer EV. “There’s nothing like driving across Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 in an all-electric, 1,000 horsepower supertruck,” said Activision’s director of Global Partnerships William Gahagan in a GMC press release. While the press release said the game will highlight the Hummer’s off-roading capabilities, it hasn’t taken players long to highlight another one of its attributes: Using its massive, hulking frame to run pedestrians over.

Warzone 2.0 was released on Wednesday, but clever gamers quickly realized what road safety advocates have been warning about since the Hummer was first announced. A near-silent, 1,000 horsepower behemoth comparable in size to many World War II tanks that can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in three seconds is a killing machine. And at six and a half feet fall weighing more than 9,000 pounds, if it hits you, you are not getting back up.

It looks like the Call of Duty’s game designers agree, because the digital version of the Hummer EV is quickly proving one of the game’s best weapons. While the Hummer can, like other vehicles in Warzone, obviously be shot up or blown up with explosives or RPGs, its speed and armor make it particularly good at running over enemies.

It is tempting to start doing some hand-wringing about this. There is an ongoing traffic violence epidemic in the U.S. in large part due to stupidly large vehicles dominating our streets. There is no vehicle larger or stupider than the Hummer EV. That is, in fact, the whole point of the Hummer, to be the largest and stupidest vehicle on the street. So far, GMC has sold 783 Hummer EVs, so most people have never seen one before. It is probably not great that the first exposure many people will have to the Hummer EV will be using it to run people over in Warzone.

But I’m not going to do that hand-wringing. Instead, I am here only to praise GMC for this inspired product placement. The Hummer is a commercialized descendent of an actual military vehicle which was designed for use in war. It belongs on the battlefield, both real and virtual. I’m going to regard the Hummer EV in CoD the same way I do all the guns: Fun to play with in a video game and praying to God I never see one coming at me in real life.