Activision Suddenly Flip-Flops On SBMM During Black Ops 7 Open Beta Causing Player Frustration
- Activision reinstated SBMM option during Open Beta
- Most highly skilled players want to get rid of SBMM altogether from the game
- Black Ops 7 Design Director says studio still gathering data and feedback
- Black Ops 7 still slated for release on Nov. 14 this year
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Community Prefers SBMM
Players who signed up for Beta testing Black Ops 7 noticed a sudden change of matchmaking overnight between Oct. 6-7 as the mode without Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) was removed as an option.
The Call of Duty player community is one of the largest in the world with more than 100 million players across different platforms, and for the most part, they prefer having SBMM as it gives them a chance to casually enjoy the game without being crushed by more skilled players. It’s the loud minority of players on social media that is against SBMM.
Popular streamers like Dr Disrespect, TimTheTatman, and Nadeshot have all publicly condemned SBMM in Call of Duty Games, ranging from calling “public matches super sweaty” to “lack of ‘easy’ or relaxed matches.”
Shiraku explained SBMM on his X account with regards to Call of Duty streamers by saying: “The streamer sweats throw a fit because they all end up facing each other instead of being able to farm casuals to appear at the top of a matches killboard to look good to their viewers.”
Activision Not Taking A Gamble On Black Ops 7
Once the SBMM option was put back into Beta testing players were quick to voice their complaints on X. Mr. Suárez was one among many to express their concerns over not leaving SBMM out of the game.
“Can we please address if this is true, and you’re just going to sneak SBMM back in, because ‘it’s better.’ It’s going to decide if I buy it, or drop CoD after 8 years of dedication,” he said.
Activision Design Director on Black Ops 7, Matt Scronce, replied on X with a response suggesting that the studio will not take any chances with their upcoming flagship title. In short he simply said this in response to why SBMM was put back into Beta testing: “To test, gather data, and get feedback.”
Black Ops 7’s Open Beta testing has been extended to 9am Oct. 9. This will give the dev team about seven weeks to hammer out all bugs and come up with a final decision on SBMM before the game is released on Nov. 14.
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