XDefiant Will Not Feature Skill-Based Matchmaking

Ubisoft has been hard at work on its upcoming free-to-play shooter XDefiant, which will be releasing on May 21, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. In a recent blog post, the French gaming giant shed some light on its stance on skill-based matchmaking and how it plans to use that for its upcoming release.

According to the post, Ubisoft will not be using traditional skill-based matchmaking for its players, and instead, it will be utilizing different factors to ensure a smooth playing experience across different playlists. For instance, casual play will prioritize fast connection times and region while ranked play will prioritize Rank Points, player platform, and input devices to ensure a level playing field.

“We believe that no SBMM is paramount to a fun and varied game experience in the long-term,” the developer says. “Frankly, skill-based match making means every casual game is repetitive- constantly repeating matches that are just as stressful and matched as ranked. We believe casual playlist 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 wait for XDefiant has been a pretty long one and ripe with many delays, but the game is finally looking to be on track for its imminent release. Ubisoft recently also detailed a list of weapons, factions, and maps that will be included with the launch version- read more on that through here.