McDonald’s UK has teamed up with Xbox to turn food from Halo, Fallout, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and more into an actual menu, as Side Missions returns for 2026.
McDonald’s is taking its Side Missions platform deeper into gaming with Xbox, bringing food from six major titles into restaurants for a limited run. Created by Leo UK, the campaign spans Halo: Campaign Evolved, Fallout 76, Forza Horizon 6, Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush.
The menu gets pleasingly specific for Xbox gaming fans. Halo’s Moa Nuggets become Black Pepper & Garlic McNuggets. Fallout 76’s Blamco Mac & Cheese becomes Cheesy Potato Bites. Elsewhere there’s a Forza-inspired Sour Cherry Fizz, an Overwatch Sugar Doughnut, World of Warcraft Dragonbreath Dip and a Candy Crush McFlurry.
Side Missions first launched in 2025 around the idea that a trip to McDonald’s can be a welcome detour from whatever else you are meant to be doing. For its second year, that thought has been taken quite literally.
A 60-second film directed by Romain Chassaing through Academy opens in Halo: Campaign Evolved, where two Marines abandon their mission for a tactical trip to McDonald’s. Characters from the other five games soon follow, turning an ordinary restaurant into a meeting point for some fairly unlikely customers.
Andrew Long, Chief Creative Officer at Leo UK, points to the thinking behind the collaboration: “For years fans have been bringing McDonald’s iconic food into the world of their favourite games.” This time, he says, the idea was to turn that relationship around and bring those foods into McDonald’s.
The film is only one part of a much broader campaign. McDonald’s and Xbox began seeding the collaboration through Xbox and game-owned social channels ahead of launch, with gaming creators brought in to tease the partnership. A preview event followed, giving creators early access to the food, packaging and game-specific details before the menu went live. Paid social, cosplayers, creator reviews and TikTok activity extend the campaign further into the communities around each title.
The partnership also reaches back into the games. Tim Kenward, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s UK & Ireland, said the partnership is about “bringing parts of these iconic gaming worlds to life, giving fans the chance to experience food they have only ever seen on screen.”
Through the MyMcDonald’s App, Rewards points can be exchanged for in-game items including McDonald’s-inspired Master Chief armour in Halo: Campaign Evolved, a Fallout 76 Sugarbomb Bundle, a Forza Horizon 6 car voucher and an Overwatch Kiriko emote.
The campaign gives fans several ways in: through the film, the food, the packaging, social content and the games themselves.
Under THE GOODS’ YouTube upload of the film, Halo fans quickly started debating whether the Marines had violated the Cole Protocol. Overwatch players were spotting D.Va and Kiriko. Others were picking apart the Fallout CGI, comparing the production favourably with recent game releases and asking when the menu might reach the US and wider Europe.
The conversation is revealing because gaming audiences tend to be highly literate in the worlds they follow. Characters, lore, scale, behaviour and tiny visual details all get noticed. The campaign has given those audiences enough material to start discussing it on their own terms.
There is a useful lesson here for brands looking at gaming. Large IP partnerships can buy attention quickly and yet, holding that attention requires a stronger understanding of how fandom actually behaves.
McDonald’s and Xbox have built Side Missions across product, media, community and platform. There is food to try, lore to recognise, rewards to unlock, characters to spot and details to argue over.
That gives the collaboration more life than a launch film alone could carry, I'd say Side Missions gives gaming fans plenty to work with.
Campaign: McDonald’s Side Missions
Client: McDonald’s
Partner: Xbox
Advertising Agency: Leo UK
CCO at time of campaign development: Mark Elwood
Executive Creative Director: Andrew Long
Creative Directors: Jason Keet, James Hodson
Senior Creatives: Abi Stephenson, Matt Jones
CSO: Josh Bullmore
Head of Strategy: Joe Beveridge
Head of Comms Strategy: Jen Leung
Planning Director: Beth Mackenzie
CEO: Carly Avener
Managing Director: Sam Houlston
Managing Partner: Nat Barry
Business Lead: Steph Bates
Head of Design: Dave Allen
Design Director: Paul Reddington
Lead Senior Designer: Roxana Iriciuc
Senior Designer: Tomek Drozdowski
Motion Design Director: Carmen Perez Jimenez
Senior Motion Designer: Jacson Mitchell
Motion Designer: Bey Redding-O’Brien
Marketing & Menu Director: Hannah Pain
Head of Marketing, Food & Beverage: Liz Whitbread
Heads of Brand: Chloe Bissell, Harriet Buchanan
Marketing Manager, Brand: Alexandra Martin
Consumer PR Lead: Melodie Richards
Production Company: Academy
Director: Romain Chassaing
Producer: Steve Overs
Executive Producer: Darapen Vongsa-nga
DoP: Mathieu Plainfossé
Production Designer: Olly Williams
Offline Edit: Sam Bould @ tenthree
Post Production: Black Kite Studios
Production Company: Darling Films Ltd
Director: Scott Grummett
Producer: Kelly Doyle Montejo
Executive Producer: Claire Timms
DoP: Tim Green
VFX Supervisor: Rob Peacock
Offline Edit: Adam Rudd @ Final Cut
Post Production: Black Kite Studios
Photographer: Rob Billington
Stills Production & Post Production: Publicis Production
CG Post Production: Black Kite Studios
Media Buying: OMD
PR: RED
CRM: TMW
Digital & Merchandising: tms
Point of Purchase: Linney
Sound Company: 750mph
Sound Design + Mix: Sam Ashwell, Mike Bovill
Music Supervisors: Ronnie Olubayo and David Bass @ Wake the Town
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