Last month, developer Treyarch announced that it was removing skill-based matchmaking from Black Ops 7 multiplayer following some early beta testing of this change in direction - and now the team has detailed exactly how this will all work at launch, and there are some caveats.
Black Ops 7's multiplayer playlists will be split into two categories: Open and Standard. 'Open' is where skill is 'minimally considered' for matchmaking, while 'Standard' hosts matches where skill is an 'important consideration'. On release, the majority of multiplayer playlists will fall into the Open category, while just one Moshpit playlist is present in the Standard category.
The team has showcased exactly how this will look at launch:
As you can see in the top image, those Open playlists also contain 'persistent lobbies' - where players will stay together for subsequent matches unless they choose to leave and re-matchmake. Here's Treyarch's quick explainer on this:
"Hey everyone, to clarify: just like in the Black Ops 7 Beta, skill will be minimally considered in every Open playlist. We've also added persistent lobbies and new playlists since the Beta, including Quick Play."
So, while the team hasn't fully removed SBMM in Black Ops 7, it's now being displayed an option rather than the only way to play - and we're very happy to see this. Open playlists should provide a Call of Duty experience that's much more like the classic games in the series, while Standard is there for folks who want to make sure they're getting matched up with players of a similar skill level every time.
It remains to be seen how this will be handled further into the game's life cycle; we assume Treyarch will be gathering lots of data on this to see who's interacting with what. To be honest, as long as there are options for players we're happy - Call of Duty easily has a big enough community to accommodate both of these matchmaking types in Black Ops 7.