Battlefield 2042 will feature a modified take on skill-based matchmaking, according to a known leaker.
Tom Henderson, who has made a number of correct predictions about the upcoming DICE FPS and Call of Duty 2021, spoke about matchmaking in Battlefield 2042 and revealed that the game will use skill-based parameters, but only when a game is full.
In a series of Tweets (via Reddit), Henderson took a jab at Call of Duty players planning to jump to Battlefield 2042 before saying: "And yes, there is SBMM in #BATTLEFIELD2042 - It's just PRIMARILY sever based."
However, Henderson then walked this back in another tweet, explaining that the game actually doesn't feature SBMM, at least until a lobby is full. He later tweeted: "I worded this a bit confusingly "And yes, there is SBMM in #BATTLEFIELD2042 - It's just PRIMARILY sever based." The majority of the "SBMM" happens when you've found the server, it doesn't kick in beforehand - So it's not like COD."
Essentially what Henderson is saying here is that Battlefield will pull in all players into a lobby and then will sort out the teams based on their skill afterwards. This would effectively mean that the game doesn't have skill-based matchmaking, but rather an attempt to auto-balance teams, which should be good news for certain fans of first-person shooters.
The skill-based matchmaking debate often rages online in competitive games, and raised its head in a big way after the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Arguments, especially in the Call of Duty community contend that it is used too aggressively, creating non-stop stressful matches that players can't escape from. If you are playing to improve that can be a bit of a nightmare, especially when applied to every mode in the game.
Of course, take this all with a grain of salt. Henderson has gotten leaks around Call of Duty and Battlefield right before, but without confirmation from DICE, we just don't know for certain how Battlefield 2042 will handle its online infrastructure.
With 128 player battles, DICE will have to find a whole bunch of players to fill out all of its games. With the games being so big though, it's likely the skill-based team-making will still be felt with great and bad players on both sides of the field.
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