Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Reportedly Has Very Controversial Modern Warfare Feature

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War -- believed to be in development for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox [...]

By Tyler Fischer

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War -- believed to be in development for PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC -- was finally revealed yesterday, with a full reveal coming next week on August 26. Until then, details on the new COD are scarce. That said, we do have a new report that is going to halt the hype train bound for August 26 for a lot of players. If you weren't a fan of 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare implementing skill-based matchmaking, well bad news: it's reportedly going to be implemented in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in the exact same way.

The report comes way of Call of Duty insider Tom Henderson, who has proven reliable with numerous Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War leaks. Henderson doesn't divulge much, nor his sources, but notes the controversial feature is back and is the same exact system. In other words, not only will skill-based matchmaking reportedly be in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, but it's apparently going to be the exact same system as Modern Warfare.

For those that don't know: skill-based matchmaking is a matchmaking system that pairs players with and against players roughly of the same skill. It's an increasingly common matchmaking system as more and more games get away from random matchmaking that pairs together players of all types of experience and skill. In the past, Call of Duty has used the latter, but it looks like the former will be the new standard going forward.

So, why is this feature controversial? Well, many argue it takes the fun out of the game and punishes players for playing the game with a competitive edge. And there's something to this argument. You want good players on your team, but it's not always fun to face a team of completely equal caliber. For one it leads to similar individual results every round, but it's also not the Call of Duty experience many grew up on.

If so many players vehemently hate it, why is it becoming so prevalent? Well, the reality is only a minority of more hardcore players hate it. For the larger bulk of causal players, it's great. There's nothing worse than trying to jump into a competitive online game to only routinely get squashed by players with more experience. Further, many developers have noted it leads to a reduction in the early bounce rate, which is ultimately all developers and publishers ultimately care about.

That all said, for now, this is all reported information. Nothing here is official, and at the moment of publishing, none of Activision, Treyarch, or Raven Software have commented on this report or talked about skill-based matchmaking in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set to release sometime later this year. For more coverage on the Call of Duty series click here or check out the relevant links below:

As always, feel free to hit the comments section with your thoughts or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. Are you pro or anti-SBMM being in Call of Duty?

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