XDefiant confirms CoD’s worst nightmare - No SBMM

For quite some time now, XDefiant's window to be the "Call of Duty killer" has been closing increasingly quickly. It comes as multiple delays to the Ubisoft FPS have left players rather underwhelmed.

But even as XDefiant finally arrives without the original hype, that rustic CoD feel of Black Ops 2 is set to arrive with it. Now, Ubisoft has landed one punch against its CoD rival, as it confirms the dreaded skill-based matchmaking won't be present.

XDefiant says no to skill-based matchmaking

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If you whisper skill-based matchmaking to a Call of Duty player, they will quiver in fear as if he-who-should-not-be-named would appear with his wand raised, ready with the killing curse. It's a system that shrouds players in misery, all to protect the bottom of the barrel. The wooden spoon of competitive games. A full-blown participation medal.

Ubisoft appears to agree, as XDefiant has confirmed it won't be launching with SBMM. "There is no skill-based matchmaking in our casual playlist," the devs wrote in a blog post. Instead, matchmaking will primarily be based on latency before tying in factors like blocked/muted players, party sizes, regions, input devices, and platforms.

XDefiant devs ridicule SBMM as 'repetitive, stressful, and no fun'

Not only did the devs say no to SBMM (although it will be added to Ranked play, or at least play a part in the Elo system), but Ubisoft has now ridiculed the feature entirely. 

"We believe that no SBMM is paramount to a fun and varied game experience in the long term. Frankly, skill-based matchmaking means every casual game is repetitive- constantly repeating matches that are just as stressful and matched as ranked," the blog post reads.

"We believe casual playlists should be fun and no SBMM is the way to do that. If you want that competitive every second counts go all-out playstyle - you'll find our ranked mode to your liking."

The decision has already gone down a storm, with fans anticipating the title, but it's not yet seen whether it will be enough to recapture that CoD-hating community that emerged last year.