Prior to the launch of Call of Duty Black Ops 7, Treyarch made headlines when they announced that they would be tweaking their matchmaking system for the first time in years, reducing its focus on player skill in favour of connection quality. While further steps were said to have been made in this regard with the recent launch of BO7 Season 5, many fans have been left confused. Thus, Call of Duty has now come out to try and offer some clarity on the matter.

In the days leading up to the launch of Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Season 5, Treyarch revealed that the new content drop would arrive alongside a refreshed matchmaking system, stating at the time: “we're updating Black Ops Classic, Quick Play, and Party Games in Black Ops 7 with a new matchmaking system inspired by those classic games.”

At the time, little else was offered in the way of additional details, and so some players were left confused, especially as BO7 already included what Treyarch claimed to be ‘Open Matchmaking.’

Taking to Twitter to try to explain the new system, the team wrote: “We've seen your questions about the difference between Open and the new system. The new system builds on what we've learned, with smarter team balancing, wide match variety, improvements that help keep matches full, and a better experience for mixed-level parties. We believe these changes will deliver a better overall experience for all players, with the variety players love from classic Call of Duty.”

While it would be beneficial if Treyarch / Activision were to release a full document detailing the exact specifics which go into each matchmaking session, knowing at the very least what aspects this new system is targeting does allow for a greater degree of understanding. It will be interesting to see how they end up approaching matchmaking in MW4.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this new system? Was open matchmaking a jump up in quality compared to the previous Skill-based matchmaking? Let us know down below.

Prior to the launch of Call of Duty Black Ops 7, Treyarch made headlines when they announced that they would be tweaking their matchmaking system for the first time in years, reducing its focus on player skill in favour of connection quality – closer to that of OG COD’s matchmaking system. With Modern Warfare 4 on the horizon, Activision are making further changes to how they match players; further reducing SBMM in certain modes.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the official Call of Duty page shared the following: “Over the past year, we've continued to learn a lot about Multiplayer matchmaking through player data and community feedback. We’re also excited to see all the recent love for Black Ops and Black Ops II, which reinforced that there are many elements of those experiences that players appreciate.”

With this in mind, the team revealed that “Starting this week with Season 05, we're updating Black Ops Classic, Quick Play, and Party Games in Black Ops 7 with a new matchmaking system inspired by those classic games.”

They concluded by stating: “We'll continue to offer Open playlists in Black Ops 7, and we'll also include Open playlist options in the upcoming Modern Warfare 4 Beta. Thanks for your continued feedback as we stay focused on player experiences that go beyond expectations. Jump in and let us know what you think.”

As mentioned, Black Ops 7 already includes an open matchmaking option, which deprioritises skill in many instances. That said, it remains far from perfect, and so it is interesting and encouraging to see Call of Duty trying to get closer to their more classic matchmaking experiences – especially in the wake of Black Ops 7’s Classic Mode and the revivals of BO1 and 2 on PS5.

Hopefully these changes are immediately noticeable. We’ll find out soon enough when Black Ops 7 Season 5 launches later today.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Black Ops 7’s open matchmaking? Is it a good enough compromise? Or should they go back to entirely connection-based matchmaking? Let us know down below.