The XDefiant team has explained their matchmaking system, and they have made the one big decision that may just win everyone over to it.
As they explained in their blog, they won’t have skill based match-making, or SBMM, on casual play. In their words:
“The most important thing to know is- there is no skill-based matchmaking in our casual playlist. We believe that no SBMM is paramount to a fun and varied game experience in the long-term.
Frankly, skill-based match making means every casual game is repetitive- constantly repeating matches that are just as stressful and matched as ranked.
We believe casual playlist should be fun and no SBMM is the way to do that. If you want that competitive every second counts go all out playstyle – you’ll find our ranked mode to your liking.”
As the team also explained, ranked play isn’t ready for launch. So for the near future, XDefiant will just have only casual play, and have no SBMM at all.
SBMM is a touchy subject for multiplayer shooter fans. In theory, SBMM should allow players to find matches suitable to each player’s skill level. This should mean that the game doesn’t feel too difficult for beginners or casual players.
In practice, SBMM means players who take the game seriously can never relax when they play the game. They don’t get a chance to make mistakes that they can learn from, and they have to constantly worry about their rank going down. And there are times when high ranked players end up with teams with less skilled players, and they can end up losing out of no fault of their own. Of course, this is especially harder on esports players.
We don’t know if XDefiant can really keep this going forever, but at least for the first few weeks after its launch, XDefiant will be a multiplayer shooter fans know will feel good to play, and they can enjoy it because there won’t be any SBMM to worry about.
The team also explained the other criteria for matchmaking, for both casual and ranked play. One particular choice of interest is a feature they call input device lock. When you join matchmaking, the device you are using, whether that’s a console controller, or mouse and keyboard, will be locked. You won’t be able to switch your controllers around until you leave the lobby.
XDefiant does have a feature to identify your controller, AKA, your input device, and that’s part of the criteria in matchmaking. But Ubisoft seems to already expect people to try to game the system, so they’re telling them not to even try. We’ll see how effective this measure is in curbing bad behavior.
XDefiant is launching on May 21, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Ubisoft Connect. The game is not available on Steam.
