Two of Call of Duty's major pain points for players over the past few years have finally, mercifully been addressed, and it's all because of the players.
This morning, Treyarch and Activision announced that Black Ops 7 will launch with "minimal skill consideration" as the default playlist for all multiplayer games, and lobbies will now remain persistent and no longer disband after each match, bringing the series full circle back to some of what made it great in the past.
This past weekend in the BO7 beta, Treyarch and Activision finally pressed the big red button, removing the sweatiest skill-based matchmaking algorithm that has plagued the series for years and replacing it with one that considers skill minimally. And the difference has been stark.
"Simply put, imagine the matchmaking experience of Open Moshpit from the beta, but as the standard in Black Ops 7 on day one," Treyarch said. "Our team feels strongly about providing players with a more varied experience, and the beta proved to be a great opportunity to test this approach."
In CoD's early days, rivalries and fun would form in lobbies that stayed persistent. Over the past several games, though, the lobbies would break up after each match, constantly matching players with new opponents. The companies have heard the complaints on that, too, and now lobbies will remain persistent in BO7 as well.
Another big point of contention, aim assist, will also be addressed at BO7's launch. Treyarch said it has "seen the discussions about rotational aim assist and community questions about how aim assist will be tuned across inputs in BO7," confirming that "it’s a priority of ours to have a fair and competitive balance across all input devices at launch, and we’ll be sharing more about changes coming to aim assist on controller ahead of launch."
The constant complaining about SBMM over the years has consistently been a top discussion in the community since 2019. The fact that Treyarch is finally letting off of the gas and letting players enjoy themselves without matching up against OpTic Gaming after a decent game is tremendous news.
Things may change over time, as the reduced SBMM could end up having an adverse effect on a sect of the playerbase. But for now, with genre competition in Battlefield 6 looming, CoD has made some changes that will make many players happy, and I will take that W for now.
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The post Call of Duty gamers, we won: Black Ops 7 will launch with reduced SBMM, persistent lobbies, and aim assist changes appeared first on Destructoid.
