Activision’s attempts to delve into Call of Duty’s matchmaking methods, partly in response to player complaints of how skill factors in, just got a whole lot more detailed.
The company previously released a blog post explaining how its matchmaking works, including factors like input device, platform, skill, and more. But now, a new document delves way deeper than most ever thought would be possible. Coming in at 19 pages long, it’s probably more detailed than it needs to be, but the effort must be commended.
“The design of Call of Duty matchmaking is driven by our goal to create the best experiences for our player community,” Activision said. “As part of our commitment to an ongoing conversation about the Call of Duty matchmaking process, we are launching a new series of white papers from our technology team that will further expand on how Call of Duty builds online matches.”
The first topic of focus in the “Call of Duty Matchmaking Series” is “one of the most critical factors in the overall process,” which is connection—and ping specifically. The document explains everything from how data centers, ping, servers, tick rates, and more factor into the connection of a game. It’s a lengthy read, and quite a complicated one, but it’s worth looking into if it’s something you care about.
What most fans will care about, however, is the next entry in the matchmaking blog series, which is about how skill factors in. Skill-based matchmaking, or SBMM, has been a hot-button topic in the gaming industry, and especially CoD, for the past few years.
The blog on how skill affects matchmaking will be released in June 2024, Activision says, so the wait is just a couple of months long from now. The hope for many fans of the franchise is that the next blog will be as detailed as the ping one, which can be read in full PDF format.
