Call of Duty insider claims SBMM returning in Black Ops Cold War

If Call of Duty insider TheLongSensation is to be believed, Treyarch and Raven’s upcoming Black Ops Cold War will see the return of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) from Modern Warfare, which has been strongly criticized by the Call of Duty community.

While Modern Warfare does boast a fairly large community, there’s one thing that a lot of players agree: skill-based matchmaking does more harm than good.

In theory, it’s a good concept, forcing players of similar skill-level to compete against one another. In practice, however, many have been complaining that it ruins the experience, with some people suggesting the implementation of separate casual and ranked modes in order to fix this problem.

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Regardless of certain players’ feelings on it, however, it seems like it’s here to stay, as Activision have point-blank refused to even comment on it, despite numerous inquiries.

Call of Duty insider TheLongSensation, also known as Tom Henderson, has confirmed on Twitter that, not only will SBMM return with Black Ops Cold War, it’ll apparently be the exact same system as the one implemented in Modern Warfare.

This will surely be extremely disappointing for players to hear, as many were hoping for, at the very least, a toned-down version of SBMM or, as previously mentioned, a separation between casual matches and ranked skill-based playlists.

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The criticism towards the system has been pretty substantial ever since Modern Warfare was originally released back in October of 2019, and it’s only grown with the release of Warzone in March, especially since many believe it’s stronger in the battle royale than in multiplayer.

Big-name Call of Duty content creators like former OpTic Gaming member James Spratt have claimed that the inclusion of SBMM could “ruin” Black Ops Cold War, so it is a bit surprising to see Activision continue with its implementation.

This is all, of course, based on rumors and speculation, as nothing can be confirmed until Activision or Treyarch make an official announcement. Considering that it’s highly unlikely either of them will comment on SBMM, we’ll have no choice but to wait for the game to release before coming to any conclusions.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set to be officially revealed within Warzone on Wednesday, August 26.