Ubisoft has revealed that XDefiant will not have skill-based matchmaking in its casual play mode. Instead, the game will have different matchmaking factors depending on each playlist. XDefiant is considered Ubisoft’s answer to Call of Duty, and its development is being led by longtime CoD boss Mark Rubin. CoD famously uses SBMM, much to the chagrin of some players, so this move by Ubisoft could win over some fans.
According to a new post from Ubisoft on its website, Casual Play prioritizes fast connection times and will try to match latency and regions where possible. Ubisoft’s reasoning for not implementing SBMM for Casual Play is that the matches will be a more fun and varied experience in the long-term. The development team states that having SBMM makes matches repetitive and stressful.
For those who do want a competitive experience, Ranked Play will be added in a future season. The mode is segmented by rank levels and will only matchmake players within a rank range.
When it comes to balancing teams, they are balanced based on players’ skill rating. Casual Play doesn’t use skill ratings to determine who gets into the game, but once everyone enters and the lobby is full, the teams will be balanced. Lobbies in Casual Play also persist between matches, so subsequent matches will often include the same players from the previous match. However, teams are still shuffled between them.
XDefiant launches on May 21 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S as a free-to-play game. Ubisoft also recently canceled The Division Heartland in order to put more resources into XDefiant and Rainbow Six.
