CoD insider claims SSBM unchanged for Black Ops Cold War beta

The open beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is rapidly approaching.

Set to begin on 8th October for PlayStation 4 users who have preordered the game, there’s not much time left until fans of the franchise will be playing multiplayer once again.

(Picture: Activision Blizzard)

However, some fans might be deterred from playing if a recent leak about the controversial skill-based matchmaking (SBMM), which upset many with its inclusion, proves to be true. There are no official sources on the matter, but reports are saying that SBMM will be the same in the Beta as it was in the Alpha. 

SBMM to return in the Black Ops Cold War Beta?

While there’s no official confirmation SBMM exists within Black Ops Cold War, it was hard to deny its presence within the alpha.

Lobbies seemed tougher and balanced to a fine point during the duration of the alpha test. It didn’t seem as strict as Modern Warfare though, which was proven to contain some form of skill-based matchmaking. Nonetheless, SBMM was still felt by a wide majority of players during the Cold War alpha. 

Even with the mass amounts of complaining that resulted because of this, it appears that Activision is still going forward with its current matchmaking plan for the open beta. Call of Duty insider Tom Henderson, who has been deadly accurate up to this point, tweeted about the open beta’s SBMM earlier today.

It's exactly the same. https://t.co/oz00piIuKU

— Tom Henderson (@_TomHenderson_) October 1, 2020

Tom has been correct about a plethora of reports concerning the Black Ops Cold War multiplayer and campaign. However, he’s still an unconfirmed source, so take whatever he says with a grain of salt. 

For argument’s sake though, let’s say that Henderson is correct about SBMM returning in the same capacity during the upcoming open beta. If true, then Activision clearly is following the industry’s trend of implementing the matchmaking feature to appease to the lower-skilled player base. Data shows that skill-based matchmaking increases retention among this skill level. 

(Picture: Activision Blizzard)

However, what this does is infuriate the higher-skilled bracket of players. Call of Duty is about having fun and it’s hard to do that playing against enemies of your skill level game after game. The main argument against SBMM is that a Ranked Playlist should use the strict matchmaking feature and casual playlists shouldn't have it at all or at least an extremely toned-down version of it.

• Read more: Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: How to get access to the closed beta through Treyarch's Discord

Regardless of this argument, Activision looks to still be using a form of strict skill-based matchmaking. Perhaps the only possible silver lining with this information is that Treyarch could be gathering data on SBMM during the open beta and then make changes to it for the full release of Black Ops Cold War.

The community can only hope.

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