Black Ops 7 beta brings back SBMM in a new playlist to "get solid feedback," and everyone still hates it

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Call of Duty players aren't the happiest at the moment, you could say

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
(Image credit: Activision)

If you were enjoying the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Beta and now you're not, there's a good reason for that: the matchmaking has changed again. The Search and Destroy mode is no longer open, but now skills-based, to allow for more testing and data collection.

As is routine for a new Call of Duty, the public beta for Black Ops 7 has yielded mixed feedback. Some players love it, just as they do practically every other installment of the FPS, while others have been frustrated by what they’ve played.

In response to fan outcry on Twitter, Matt Scronce, design director on Black Ops 7, revealed it's to gather more information on the people who’re playing. "We're trying to: Give players what they want as much as we can; Limit how many playlists we have active to focus population and data; Get solid testing, data, and feedback on matchmaking," he says.

As much as this move might irritate members of the community, all the above is a large part of why public betas are important. Treyarch wants to know what modes and methods work for players, what ones don't, and why. A new Call of Duty is always one of the biggest releases of the year - you can never have enough research for such a thing.

That said, though, the people really have spoken on this one. It might be time to put SBMM Search and Destroy on the shelf.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 devs say that you can blame the Black Ops timeline for the wall jump not being a wall run: "Black Ops 2 really gave us a foundation for the technology available."

Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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