COD Secrets REVEALED! Black Ops 7 Conspiracy SHOCKS Fans!

Activision's strangely silent treatment regarding sales figures for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is starting to raise eyebrows, and more than a few hackles, amongst the CoD faithful. The simmering discontent isn't *just* about the missing numbers, though. Players are also once again voicing their perennial concerns over the game's Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) system. It's a debate that seems to resurface with every single release, doesn't it?

COD Secrets REVEALED! Black Ops 7 Conspiracy SHOCK...

Enter Charlie Olson. Now, for those who don't know, Olson is the man who *created* Call of Duty's SBMM system. Yeah, *that* guy. Having spent a decade at Raven Software under the Activision umbrella, he's wading into the fray to address these very concerns directly. He recently released a YouTube video breaking down exactly how his SBMM is designed to function. It's a pretty detailed explanation, but the key takeaway is this: Activision's announcement of "open matchmaking" in Black Ops 7 *does not* mean SBMM has been banished to the shadow realm. A lot of players were hoping it would be, especially those looking for an easier time.

Olson argues that the game is currently dominated by what he calls "sweats" – those ultra-competitive, highly skilled players who live and breathe CoD. He suggests this is why many casual players are finding the experience frustrating. "Some players are leaving because they thought this tweet meant SBMM had been completely removed from the game, and then they felt betrayed by the inclusion of one standard matchmaking playlist, and then blamed it for stealing 'fodder' from the open playlist," Olson explained. "What's really going on here is there aren't enough casual players at launch to make open matchmaking the pubstomp that was expected or promise. If open lobbies are sweaty, it's because it's mostly sweats playing." Basically, he's saying the player base needs to even out a bit.

So, what's a frustrated casual player to do? Olson recommends sticking to familiar modes and specifically suggests trying open Team Deathmatch (TDM) playlists for those seeking less punishing competition. He attributes the dreaded "sweaty" open lobbies, coupled with longer wait times and degraded connection quality, to the return of persistent lobbies at launch. According to Olson, that's a tradeoff Activision made to avoid low-population playlists. A fair point, I suppose. You can't have everything.

Looking ahead, Olson paints a somewhat bleak picture. He predicts that the player base will become increasingly competitive over time, potentially mirroring the declining player numbers seen in other titles like XDefiant. Perhaps even more dramatically, he floated the idea of Activision adopting a two-year development cycle for Call of Duty titles, instead of the annual release schedule we've all become accustomed to. Now *that* would be a major shift.

Black Ops 7 has recently seen an update adding Endgame content and disconnection protection, and Activision is teasing the upcoming BlackCell DLC for Season 1. These additions may be coming at just the right time. Reports indicate that physical sales of Black Ops 7's international launch have been somewhat disappointing. And of course, the elephant in the room is the ever-growing influence of Game Pass on overall game sales. Could this year be the year that Battlefield finally reclaims its crown? There's a growing buzz around Battlefield 6, and some are whispering that it might just be one of the few shooters in the last two decades to actually outsell Call of Duty. But honestly, it's still early days. We'll just have to wait and see.