This past Thursday, publisher EA hosted its EA Play 2020 event online. A big part of EA’s showing was what was coming in the future for Apex Legends, including that the game will be coming to Switch and Steam and will feature cross-play. In a recent interview following those announcements with the game’s creative director, Chad Grenier, he was asked about the ongoing discussion about the game’s use of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM).
Most competitive online games utilize some form of SBMM to ensure a level of fairness and competition in matches. This is usually done using things such as player level, kill-to-death ratios, number of wins, and so on. Apex Legends has had some heated discussion regarding its use of SBMM in both its more casual Play Apex mode and its competitive Ranked mode. Many hardcore players argue that Play Apex should be entirely random, and that SBMM makes sense as only being a feature of Ranked. This has led not just to online discussions, but even in-game protests as well.
The counterargument is that without any SBMM, Play Apex can become a completely unfair mess where way too skilled players are thrown into matches with low-skill or even new players and that will prevent the latter from ever getting any kills, winning, or even having fun. When asked about SBMM by GameSpot, Chad Grenier responded, "There are multiple sides to the story. We're trying to evaluate all of the data and trying to do what's best for the game as a whole. It's really tough because you've got some beginner players or mediocre players, middle of the road, and you want them to have a good experience."
Grenier went on about those lower skill or new players and added, “You want them to get into the game, get engaged, get some kills, get some wins occasionally because if someone comes in and they try out Apex and they get stumped, they're not going to keep playing the game." Grenier makes the point that a continued influx of new players and retention of said players is essential to the health of Apex Legends as a whole.
In regard to the more hardcore fans of Apex that demand SBMM be removed from Play Apex, Grenier said, “We say, okay, well these highly skilled players, they should play against other highly skilled players and be competitive. We don't want them just stomping all these beginners and then they have a bad experience, right? We're always trying to find that balance."
Despite Respawn’s current stance on the matter, Grenier assures fans that Respawn is always listening and always watching, and that the studio will, “continue to tweak, iterate, [and] listen.” There may even be unannounced SBMM changes coming in the Lost Treasures Collection Event update, but players will only find out when the update arrives on this coming Tuesday, June 23.
Other changes that seem to be coming on Tuesday though include a change to Lifeline’s abilities, as well as a new version of Armed and Dangerous. Armed and Dangerous Evolved will still be sniper rifles and shotguns only, but will now feature only Evo Shields, and will introduce the new mobile respawn beacon item.
Apex Legends is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and will be available on Switch and Steam later this year.
Source: GameSpot