XDefiant is finally coming soon. To appease FPS fans and attract audiences, Ubisoft has announced a reassuring decision for its free-to-play game.
After multiple postponements, the free game XDefiant will finally be released on May 21st. Some players who tried it out in advance were pleasantly surprised. However, others feared that this new FPS would look too much like Call of Duty, since one of its efforts had led to such a long delay in its development in the first place. There is one point in particular where this appears to not be the case.
Well separated experiences in XDefiant
In an official press release, Ubisoft released a statement about the matchmaking system in XDefiant. Therefore, in these so-called more “casual” modes, the free FPS does not have SBMM (Skill-Based Matchmaking, or searching for players based on level, in French), unlike Call of Duty games in particular. The reason for this choice is the desire to provide these game modes with an atmosphere that promotes relaxation and fun.
« We believe that the absence of SBMM is essential for a varied gaming experience in the long term. Honestly, SBMM means that any casual game is repetitive and just as stressful as a ranked game. We believe that casual game modes should be for fun. If you want competitive gaming, ranked mode is for you “. Here’s what Ubisoft had to say as an introduction to its vision for matchmaking on XDefiant.
A priori I thought that the matchmaking was good
Instead of a level search in “Casual” mode, XDefiant will search according to other familiar criteria from the multiplayer FPS. The game particularly examines the region, the latency, the list of avoided players, the size of the group or even the type of controls used and the platform. This research will therefore tend to be aimed at bringing controller/console gamers together. Same observation for keyboard mouse/PC gamers. We find the same selection criteria for the ranked mode, with the addition of ranking points, this time with the implementation of the SBMM.
Note that even in Casual mode, XDefiant will automatically balance teams once the lobby is full. This is to ensure a fair and entertaining experience. Likewise, the lobby remains between each game. As long as players don’t leave the current game, it will continue by default. Finally, certain modes like Ranked Mode “lock” the type of controls used. If you search in ranked mode using a keyboard and mouse combination, the game will only search for players using the same hardware. It will also be impossible to switch to the controller during a game and vice versa. This is to prevent cheating on the matchmaking system.
So Ubisoft seems to have thought well about its theme, probably based on its experiences with Rainbow Six Siege. Will the rest of XDefiant be just as reassuring? Judgment of May 21st.
