Now it is official. The first raid of The Division 2 will not offer matchmaking. This is how the developers explain this design decision.
This announcement sparked numerous heated debates: Since yesterday, May 14th, there are many confused fans of The Division 2. The reason for this was a tweet from a marketing manager at Ubisoft. In this announcement, in response to an explicit inquiry from a fan, the upcoming raid “Operation: Dark Hours” will not offer matchmaking. This not only led to numerous question marks but also to various angry reactions.
Why the confusion? In principle, all activities in The Division 2 are supposed to offer player searching. Massive has emphasized this multiple times, and this statement is also recorded in official information materials about the game. Hardly anyone could imagine or understand that it should be different in the long-awaited raid – especially in the most challenging group activity.
This is how Massive justifies this decision: Now it is official. The raid will indeed not offer a matchmaking feature – at least not at the beginning. This has been confirmed by Yannick Banchereau, the Live Content Manager of The Division 2, in the current edition of “State of the Game”.
According to his words, this was a conscious decision that was made after numerous internal debates. It was justified by stating that matchmaking in the raid, in the opinion of the developers, could simply not provide a good experience for random groups.
The new raid is supposed to offer an unprecedented experience in The Division. It is not comparable to the incursions from the predecessor. For this raid, one needs to prepare intensively, plan and organize many things in advance – from forming a team to loadouts. Throughout the course of the raid, much will depend on communication.
All of this is extremely important for Operation: Dark Hours. But this is exactly what random teams would lack. These usually enter such activities unprepared, often do not speak the same language, or have other communication issues. For these reasons, they ultimately decided against matchmaking in the raid.
Nevertheless, it is understood that solo players or smaller groups also want a chance at the raid. Therefore, they will closely monitor fan feedback and continue this discussion. Everyone should have a chance at the raid. But at the beginning, when everything is still fresh and waiting to be discovered, they wanted to create precisely that experience – namely without group searching.
Players are supposed to experience the raid as something very special. They should plan, organize, and communicate. All of this is crucial to the special experience that this PvE top activity is supposed to offer.
Everything important about the raid launch: If you want to get started soon or even directly at the raid launch, you can find everything you need to know about the first raid of The Division 2 here.
- How to prepare for the upcoming raid in The Division 2
- Everything important about the start of the 1st raid “Operation: Dark Hours”
- How The Division 2 wants to immortalize the best raid team in the world
What do you think of this decision? And what do you think of the communication?
