Not a whole lot is known about the Warzone matchmaking system, but many think it’s SBMM. Skill-based matchmaking would make sense after all, but a supposed former Activision-Blizzard employee has something else to say. You can cheat SBMM after all but dropping in rank to make sure you play against weaker players, but what if something far more sinister is at play here? There’s been talk about Warzone’s matchmaking system for years now, and many have thought something unpleasant was going on.

The post where this reveal came from has sadly been deleted, but it was in an AskReddit thread for people who aren’t bound by an NDA anymore. A Redditor, DifferentWalk made the post, claiming the matchmaking system for Warzone was built around microtransactions. It’s a thing that has real possibility though. The idea is that if Warzone matches people against players with cool cosmetics, the player not spending money is more likely to buy them themselves. It wouldn’t be a shock though, since Activision does have one or two pretty shady patents.

According to the leaker, “Activision does indeed have a fully functional matchmaking algorithm for Call of Duty which matches players against each other based on a combination skill, purchased microtransactions and preferred weapon used in-game. What I mean with that is for example if a skilled player purchases a $20 skin for a sniper rifle, the matchmaking system will match them against a lesser skilled player who also likes to use that particular sniper rifle but isn’t good with it. The goal of the system is to give the lesser skilled player the false impression that the skilled player is doing better than them due to having purchased the skin, hopefully resulting in lesser skilled player also purchasing the same skin.”

If true, that’s absolutely reprehensible. Apparently, the theory has been tested in-game and actually has worked for Activision. The alleged former employee said that they know it’s been tested in the final release of the game, and it led to a “significant increase” in microtransaction sales. It may no longer be in the game (since they don’t work for Activision anymore) but did say it existed. The downside to this is that we have no way to prove whether this is legitimate or not.

The idea that players will spend more money, thinking the skins are making the other player good is incredibly predatory. Players should think the opponent beat them because of skill, not because of the other player having a skin. Leading the player to the false assumption that the skins are getting wins and not skill is disappointing. There’s no telling if this is real. It could just be someone very angry posting false information at a time where Activision-Blizzard is at its lowest. We will keep you up-to-date on this story as it develops.