Call of Duty Is Trying Everything It Can to Make You Play Black Ops 7 Over Battlefield 6

No thanks - looking forward to booting up Battlefield later.

It's giving off the jealous ex type of vibes.

This is why competition is good: consumers win.

I remember this scenario playing out in 2011: BF 3 vs MW 3. MW 3 destroyed BF 3.

I think Call of Duty will triumph again. It's too big. BF does look amazing though.

For the first time in ages after trying BO7 beta, I'm not getting COD in any form this year in favor of Battlefield. In years past I would get both. But I'm finally done with that cut and paste garbage. I'm filing COD next to the NHL series (waste basket). I really hope Battlefield can finally take down COD this year. Unlikely, but we'll see.

@get2sammyb

I agree. Weird complaint from the community.

@get2sammyb It does seem strange. Maybe it's to try and encourage people to still play if they can't find many people at a very low level.

@get2sammyb I suppose no-one had a problem back in the CoD4 and MW2 lobbies days, I'm no super sweat but I do like the randomness when SBMM isn't involved, that's my 50p on it anyway.

All that will happen is that there’ll be instantly a million complaints about people getting destroyed in lobbies by people massively out of their skill range. This is an insane decision, SBMM does need to be good, but the alternative is being completely outmatched half the time and steamrolling one in ten games. It only benefits those that are no-lifers or those that hack.

I thought they didnt fear bf hahaha clowns

@get2sammyb As someone who plays COD every year but isn't a 'sweat', this is still a massive improvement over their version of SBMM.
Rather than actually match you up with even-level players, COD SBMM likes to punish you for doing well (give you an impossibly hard lobby next match) and then do the opposite when you do poorly.
It's just a crap system and feels like your experience is being run by an algorithm. Little to no SBMM is the way COD used to be, it's a more organic way of doing things.

@Kezelpaso

Ah, makes sense. 👌

@get2sammyb Yeah, the complaints against SBMM always sounded like someone whining they couldn't stomp n00bs consistently.

"What? I have to try to be #1 on the leaderboard?? Unacceptable!"

The only area where I think this complaint holds up is when you're playing with friends and one friend is better than the rest. It messes up the SBMM and usually results in the lower skill players playing in matches way above their skillset, which can be super frustrating. But that could have been addressed if they wanted to.

Getting rid of SBMM altogether seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Treyarch can do all they want, but I'm skipping BO7. I just don't like Treyarch CoD games and I've tried to recently (Cold War and BO6). Gunplay just feels worse when compared to Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer, but the real kicker for me is I just don't like Treyarch's MP maps.

If you boot up MW3 today, you'll have like 50 MP maps on rotation and 90% of them are excellent.

Hmmm do I play Cod, a game owned by a company that couldn’t care less about its fans and has screwed them over left and right this gen, or do I play Battlefield, a game that’s going to be owned by a foreign country who’s does heinous acts? I’ll pass on both, thanks.

Sounds just like Black Ops 2 (the last COD I bought). Is there actually any difference in the gameplay these days, or is it really just the same every year?

So bloody glad CoD has a competitor. Monopoly never wins for anyone.

@get2sammyb felt the same exact way. Every 4 or so years I'll but a COD game to play for a bit, now that I know I'll probably get out with people that play 24/7 and I will have no shot? No thanks. I don't need to win every game I play, but it won't be fun either.

Wow. How on earth someone from Treyarch / Activision approved this???

But I'm just glad all current fighting games still used skill-based matchmaking. There's no case where i'm boot up ranked match in SF 6 and somehow i got matchup with a Rookie rank player or any player with far below my rank. I don't feel any satisfaction from beating beginners-intermediate players.

They don't need to try. I'm not playing either one. 😆

I don't care about neither game, so... whatever

That wall jump is enough to keep me off CoD this year tbh

I thoroughly enjoy FPS games, but Battlefield has done everything it can in the past few years to make it ROCK SOLID that I'll NEVER buy a BF game at launch or anywhere near it ever again, no matter how good the initial reviews and reports are. After the past few releases being so absolutely undercooked and piss poor at launch I'll never get them out of the gate again. Sure - I'll pick it up and play it many months down the road after the inevitable patches have been put into effect and there's maybe even a sale or price drop but I'm done with Battlefield at or near it's release window. There's always too much else out ther at this time of year to spend my hard earned $$ on.
On the other hand, I play COD every year with some friends and regradless of whether one yearly iteration is better or worse than the last or other previous ones, I can always count on it being a solid, fun to play and technically well executed game every single solitary year.........which is a LOT more than I can say for BF. So, it'll be COD day one for me and BF6 many months down the line.

I suspect battlefield 6 is going to blast through 1m concurrents on Steam, so it will interesting what sort of momentum it can carry onto console, epesially on PS in NA, which is the true CoD country.

@get2sammyb Yeah, you'd think tuning it would be the answer. But even with slight tweaks each year for 6 years, it still feels worse for anyone who's not a complete noob than the system the series had before.
To be honest, I'm not convinced they'll stick with this when the 'data' comes in. But at some point you have to listen to the fans who play it year in year out rather than the noobs that dip in for a few matches each year.

@get2sammyb So streamers can look good.

@get2sammyb For the most part, I'm pretty ambivalent about SBM but I will say, the world doesn't operate that way in competition for many things such as jobs, life mates or especially on an actual battlefield itself so if we're going for a more 'realistic' approach, as some people are, I'd say it's actually the way to go to eliminate SBM. But maybe the happy medium here is to have SBM for general / casual matches but eliminate it for ranked play? Just a thought....

No SBMM worked out so well for XDefiant too...oh wait.

I get not wanting every match to be a sweat-fest but I feel like that's just the way it is sometimes. I primarily play SF6 for my multiplayer fix. It wouldn't make sense for the game to match me up with someone way lower in terms of rank. It's not fun for me because I'm just steamrolling the opponent and it's not fun for my opponent because they are getting...well steamrolled.

I feel like SBMM, while not perfect in some ways of course, is still miles better than just throwing everyone into the match pool with zero consideration for skill level.

@MrStark

That’s not how I remembered it. BF3 was game changing back on PS3. When you shot from a distance you had to articulate your shot. Had Large maps, flying aircraft. Something Call of Duty didn’t offer, and visuals were better on BF3.
The recent Call of Duty MW and MW2 were really good. (2022) MW2 being my favorite with DMZ.

Great for higher level players. Awful news for the regular player that will now be destroyed every game.

@T-Bone09

Apples and Oranges. Besides, MW 3 had the better campaign as well as the solid Spec Ops mode. Its mp was a good refinement of previous MW mp offerings. Overall, MW 3 was the better game but feel free to disagree.

@get2sammyb I don’t get it either. As you say, nice for the hardcore players as they can relax and have a chill match. Meanwhile noobs and older players like myself will just get stomped and not want to bother anymore. I feel like Halo did skill based matchmaking really well, where matches were often intense but you weren’t just getting wrecked by no-lifers. Another reason to skip Call of Duty (again) this year.

No SBMM means I won't be playing it, lol. Always felt it is a very vocal minority that is always bitching about SBMM and Aim assist. I don't mind aim assist being lowered, but then the default cross play setting should be console-only.

@MrStark

I won’t argue with the campaign.. Even Call of Duty: Ghost had a good campaign. Something that they rarely dropped the ball on.. up until the recently rushed MW3.
I bought BF6 for the multiplayer obviously, and I’m sure most buy Call of Duty for the same reason. Not saying that they should botch the campaign.

But what I’m holding out for is hopefully a new DMZ mode for the 2026 Call of Duty. It was a shame they stop supporting it because it had a very active community until it became infested with hackers.

Not played multiplayer for a long time but it was way better back in the day (20 odd years ago) when you had a list of servers, often run by clans, and could add them as a favourite and play with the same people every night. You eventually settled on a realm that suited your skill and made friends etc.

I wouldn't be playing the multiplayer component anyway, but this change would mean I have even less desire to try playing it. I remember playing Overwatch where the elite players would join Silver or Gold (which was where I used to find myself), and then they would just take any enjoyment out of the game instantly. Between people deliberately dropping from the high level tiers, and also the constant people griefing in chat, I ended up giving up on the game...

I'm glad Battlefield 6 is coming out as a juggernaut cause it forces Activision to try and make CoD better instead of being complacent.

But the way they're doing matchmaking is weird.

I despise COD and I'm pretty good at it.

Now, I've pre-ordered BF6 digitally. I'm super disappointed that I'm supporting a MAGA terrorist regime. I pre-ordered the game way before the announcement.

@get2sammyb Saying this as someone who sucked at all the games like OG MW2 and played all the way till Ghosts. I think this was part of the fun and how I got better and yea sometimes it was frustrating when you'd get steamrolled by someone who is 10 prestige within the first 2 months of the game release, but I still say I had way more fun on any of those games over recent COD releases. I think that was just part of the fun, then when you finally get a lobby where you're doing good you felt unstoppable. With this news tho, I think the best part about it is that lobbies don't disband after every game. I think that's also part of what was so fun about older COD was when you kinda had grudge matches against the same players.

@get2sammyb This is my thought, it seems like it’s just shifting the problem to someone else. Next they’ll be apologizing and bringing it back as non-super fans are pushed away.

@MrStark 100%. Competition is so good for COD. They’re making adjustments they should’ve made long ago but probably didn’t as there was no need. The players weren’t going anywhere.

@get2sammyb @get2sammyb Let me also provide an simple anwser for you. I’ve been playing many FPS/TPS games my whole life and have been very high ranked on games like Apex, Overwatch and more. Had KD ratios over 3 or even higher (and lower).
So take my experience as you will.
The simple reason people hate in public matches in CoD is simply because every match feels like a sweat match. The game clearly tries to force a 1.0 KD on you. If you go 30-2 in one game prepare to be going 2-30 in the next one.

“Surely the whole point is finding players of a comparable level to you so you can have a fair and competitive match“

You have ranked mode (in all online shooter games) for those fair and competitive urges, but in CoD they restrict(perks/weapons/gadgets/field upgrades) so much that nobody plays it. They restrict complete weapons categories like shotguns, marksman rifles, specific snipers are banned on certain game mode. Many lethals and tacticals etc are also banned as are some complete perk categories.

Playing a regular match in modern CoD is actually ranked but without divisions so thats why people hate SBMM.

And of course people also wanna stomp on other people in regular games and they cant’t do that often because of SBMM.

Just not interested in BF6.
Will be getting BLOPS7 and playing without SBMM will be interesting.
If the BF Battle Royale comes out separately and is free to play, I might check it out.
If not, I'll pass.

Average gamer - COD is getting way too cartoony and silly with Beavis and Butthead, Seth Rogen, etc.
Activision - Check out the new COD trailer with giants and robots and floating islands with swords the size of buildings!

Trying not to jump to conclusions but playing against better players is the best way to get better yourself. If you play against folks you stomp all you are doing is padding your stats

I don't play cod but I do sim races that matches your skills to others in a similar fashion. My attitude is if I am matched against someone much faster then it's an opportunity to learn how I can improve rather than being upset I had no chance to win. Racing faster folks taught me to be a better sim racer.

I know different games are different but that principle is sound across genres

It's no fun playing with experienced players. They should be matched with players with same skills

No skill based matchmaking means I won't be getting the new COD. Glad I saw this. Getting to play with similarly skilled players is what makes it fun.

You're going to have plenty of frustrating sweat matches with or without SBMM, so if you remove it, everyone wins, i.e. it gives the players options and a chance to the people that don't care about sweaty competition to have a breather every few matches. If you want a ranked sweat mode, keep an actual mode intended for ranked (with all the bells and whistles like transparent stats on display), and call it Ranked Mode, and heavily promote it, so that there's actual incentive and demand for ranked play to keep it populated... instead of having redundancy with how it has been with two modes where one is actual ranked and the other is patronizing and gas lighting you with hidden ranks and with god knows whatever other matchmaking tweaks is hidden within it. You know, full transparency and all.

@get2sammyb the reason why non skill based matchmaking is a “good” is because players who are good who continously match up with other good players don’t win as much as they would like so that’s why by making the matchmaking completely random those skilled players will win way more as they will play more so against newer or not so good players

in my humble opinion this is just straight up dumb as the reason why skill based matchmaking exist in the first place is to make the game more fair to everybody but i mean if they appeal to the good players more they’ll obviously make additional money off of them as they’ll likely cash in to the game

games which voluntarily don’t do skill based matchmaking are just so desperate and i’ll never play them

@get2sammyb I'm not massively against it and understand the point, but it makes match ups more exciting if you can be against absolutely anyone. I think there should be things in place to ease newbies into the game, WAW had a Boot Camp playlist which you could only play until level 8.

@get2sammyb
Im not into MP games, but if I wanted to try one out one day, there is no way I would try one that doesn't have Skill based match making.

Combative Sports, as well as sports where you are competing directly against others, always have a form of SBMM - people dont learn by being quickly and easily beaten by someone much better than themselves. That only works if the better person goes 'easy' in order to help train the other person(s).
If you say wanted to try MMA, what do you think you would learn by sparring with a Champion Pro fighter who was trying their hardest - well apart from what concussion feels like, or how to tap out fast!

This just sounds like appeasing the few at the expense of others, and is a sure fire way of putting off newcomers. I hope my analagy makes sense.

I've said it before, but this is EXACTLY why competition is good.

@SMJ Nothing is more fun then getting destroyed by a smurf.And now its normal good luck with that. This will be the hardcore fans game and the rest will move on.

@RiverGenie How about the people who just want to relax? I want to have fun and play i dont feel like git gud.

@MrStark How can you say its better? Its better for you and he finds the other game better so its better for him.

@Flaming_Kaiser then go in with no expectations and have fun.

To use my sim racing I never go in expecting to win I finish where I finish but I try to set a realistic goal. For instance try to finish within 5 seconds of someone i know is faster than me or if I get punted off track then pass that person cleanly & finish in front of them.

I don't really play multiplayer shooters.much so can't suggest realistic goals for you but I am sure you can come up with something suitable.

Also if a game isn't relaxing enough and that's what you want you can always play something else better suited.

COD and BF are two completely different multiplayer experiences that will appeal to different players. COD feels more like an arcade shooter these days, what with all the silly skins, weird weapons, just running round for the kills etc. etc... Where-as in BF, you can't simply just run round doing that. Well, you can, they have smaller maps and modes for that... but in the much larger conquest maps, you have to play tactical also, you won't last long just running head first into battle looking for someone to shoot.

The BF experience and gameplay is far superior in my opinion.

I'll "BEE" playing Battlefield 6 instead! (B for Battlefield)

@RiverGenie Split Second i got lapped because he had the faster car well it kinda made not play online anymore because it was no use .

@WobberleyBob Late for this, but agree with you; i tried both beta(s) and what gave me more satisfactions was cod. They're completely different experiences; for me i much prefer the speed, rush and madness from call of duty while battlefield is a more "real" approach. But i think players should just be glad with battlefield coming back so they can finally pick what they prefer