Former Halo 3 lead calls SBMM a ‘failure’ in modern gaming

Former Halo 2 and 3 UX design lead Max Hoberman reacted to an article praising skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) on Nov. 20, saying it was a “failure” in modern gaming. He claimed it increases stress and segregates high-level players from the rest of the community.

In a lengthy Twitter thread first reported by PC Gamer, Hoberman gave insight into how he designed SBMM in Halo 2 and 3 and claimed it was used poorly by other developers in the industry.

SBMM determines how players of the same level are matched in ranked games—although it can also be implemented in unranked playlists. It’s a controversial topic in video games because of how impactful it can be on a player’s experience, without the developers revealing exactly how it’s implemented. It recently sparked controversy in the Call of Duty community.

Hoberman explained it was key for SBMM to allow for fun matches, as well as more stressful, high-staked ones, which isn’t the case in many modern titles. “The failure of modern skill-based matchmaking, imho, is that it’s designed to maximize these perfect match scenarios and minimize the others,” he said, referring to strictly matching players of the same level.

“I intentionally allowed variability in the range of levels we matched you with,” he explained on Halo 2‘s SBMM. “Why not always evenly match people though? My reasoning was that these are actually the most stressful matches of the set.”

The Gamesradar article he reacted to claimed SBMM improved the first-person shooter experience for players, and was mainly criticized by content creators—who benefited the most from it. Hoberman disagreed.

“Segregating high skill players from the population at large, forcing long wait times on them, is a form of discrimination,” he said. “There’s far more that can be done. Derogatory views like this, among game devs, is a cop out – and a disservice to players.”

Halo 2 redefined online multiplayer gaming when it released in 2004. It introduced various playlists players could choose to customize their experience, whether they wanted to have fun games with their friends on specific game modes or be matched with players of similar skill levels for more competitive matches.

Hoberman said that rather than providing variety, SBMM is now being implemented strictly in all playlists, preventing players from playing casually with friends, even in unranked modes. Many players agreed with the former dev, saying first-person shooting games aren’t nearly as fun anymore.