This may be the winter of discontent for some Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 players. Activision has been notably quiet about the game’s sales, and has yet to share metrics or statistics. There’s also been an uptick in anger from fans over conspiracy issues related to the game’s Skill-Based Matchmaking mode. That’s led Charlie Olson–the creator of CoD’s SBMM–to directly address some of those concerns himself.
OIson–who spent a decade at Raven Software under Activision–shared a lengthy video on his YouTube channel that dives into how his SBMM is supposed to work. He also took the time to explain why Activision’s announcement about bringing “open matchmaking” to Black Ops 7 didn’t mean the game was dropping SBMM. If fans were expecting the chance to cut down inexperienced or casual players, they’ve been disappointed. Olson argues that it means the game has been dominated by “sweats,” or experienced players, rather than rookie players.
“Some players are leaving because they thought this tweet meant SBMM had been completely removed from the game, and then they felt betrayed by the inclusion of one standard matchmaking playlist, and then blamed it for stealing ‘fodder’ from the open playlist,” explained Olson. “What’s really going on here is there aren’t enough casual players at launch to make open matchmaking the pubstomp that was expected or promise. If open lobbies are sweaty, it’s because it’s mostly sweats playing.”
