Activision addresses the matchmaking discussion of Call of Duty for the first time and wants to communicate more openly with the community on the subject in the future.
What is the problem? The biggest issue many players have with the modern parts of Call of Duty is called skill-based matchmaking (SBMM for short). This controversial system regularly causes frustration among players and has been the center of an ongoing discussion for years.
SBMM ensures that players of roughly the same skill level enter a common lobby. So you should play with and against players who are as good as you. While this may seem sensible in theory, players criticize that they do not always want to play at their highest level. It’s a game, and they also want to have fun.
If you always play against equally skilled players, you cannot relax while playing; you constantly have to put in effort and give it your all. A German YouTuber manipulated the matchmaking of the MW3 beta to finally enjoy the game – this is how critically some players view SBMM.
A former Halo developer recently stated that modern shooters’ SBMM lacks variability in matchmaking and balanced matches are the most stressful.
What did the developers say now? The developers of Call of Duty spoke for the first time about SBMM and the debate surrounding the controversial system in a statement to the online magazine CharlieIntel.
The team behind the shooter writes that the experience of the games is the most important thing for them, and matchmaking is a big part of it. That’s why they have been working for over ten years to improve matchmaking.
The current approach to matchmaking combines various factors, including the latency and skill of a player, it says in the statement.
In conclusion, the developers promise to take the time in the weeks following the launch of Season 1 to openly discuss the findings and improvements in matchmaking. They also want to discuss the subject with the community.
You can read the complete statement translated into German here:
We know there’s a great deal of interest in the matchmaking experience, especially regarding how skill contributes to how lobbies and matches are assembled. Nothing is more important to us than the experience players have with the game, and matchmaking is an important part of that. We have been working on our matchmaking system for over ten years, and we continue to invest a lot of time and energy into improving the matchmaking process. This involves employees from our ‘Call of Duty’ studios, our backend services teams at Demonware, and other groups like our Player Insights team.
It’s a considerable effort we’ve been working on for many years, and our approach combines latency, search time, and skill with other factors to find the best match experience for you. It can be challenging to talk about this topic in detail, and we have not yet taken the time to summarize all of our work to share our insights and improvements from the many years with you. We look forward to doing this in the coming weeks after the launch of Season 1 and will also make it part of our ongoing discussions with the community.
The team behind Call of Duty via X.com (CharlieIntel)
“We know it works, we want it to go”
How do players react to the statement? Many players emphasize in the comments under the statement that they just want SBMM to disappear.
Others complain that the statement does not have any real significance. There are even users who want to hold on to SBMM.
- “Just remove it completely. SBMM will be the death of Call of Duty if they continue to impose it on the community (via X.com).”
- “It was great to hear them finally address the issue in the studio. I’m not sure if we will ultimately get the transparency or changes we hope for, but the official acknowledgment is at least a first step in the right direction (via X.com).”
- “This is a big pile of nothing trying to trick you into thinking they said a lot (via X.com).”
- “We know it works, we want it to go (via X.com).”
- “SBMM is great, even if it can be frustrating at times, it’s much better than being destroyed throughout the entire game […] (via X.com).”
While the team behind Call of Duty speaks for the first time about SBMM and opens the room for further discussion on the topic, they are currently preparing the upcoming contents of Season 1. This includes a Christmas event:
CoD MW3: Season 1 brings a Christmas event with new modes & rewards in Warzone
