This week, developer Respawn published a blog post pulling the curtain back on Apex Legends skill-based matchmaking, or…
developer Respawn published a blog post pulling the curtain back on Apex Legends skill-based matchmaking, or SBMM. In the blog post, technical director Samy Duc dives deep into the inner workings of the battle royale’s matchmaking system, explaining in granular detail why players end up facing the players they do. It’s a fascinating exploration of one of the key features of any competitive multiplayer game, and Apex Legends players have certainly enjoyed the transparency.
As a Call of Duty player, I couldn’t help but look at Respawn’s blog post and wish Activision would do something similar.
Call of Duty SBMM has been a topic of discussion for years, and with each new release in the series, the same vociferous back-and-forth emerges. I’ve reported on COD SBMM numerous times, usually when players get so disgruntled with it that they start to play the game in silly ways, such as deliberately losing in a bid to matchmake against lower-skilled players in subsequent lobbies. Activision has always taken a dim view of third-party websites and apps that let players try to game the system, too.
Activision has never explained Call of Duty’s SBMM. Indeed, it seems at pains to admit it even exists. And I think this refusal to open up about matchmaking has fuelled, even exacerbated, the negative sentiment around the series. Activision’s silence on SBMM has always come across as odd, but in the context of Respawn’s blog post, it’s just downright frustrating.
The silence leads players to conclude that COD’s SBMM is tuned in some nefarious way, whether this is the truth or not. This is a real shame. Developers do not willfully set out to create negative experiences for their players. Of course they don’t! But there are realities to operating a shooter of the size and scale of Call of Duty that I’m sure forces its various developers to pull levels in certain directions that affect SBMM.
