It seems that the The Division 2 community is in a bit of an uproar the news came out that the game’s first raid, which is slated to open its gates today, will not provide matchmaking, instead requiring players to form a premade group of eight if they want to try to tackle the challenge. This might not be a problem in and of itself. After all, The Division’s fellow MMO-ish shooter Destiny provides no matchmaking for its raids, and players have gotten along fine (even if an in-game group-finder has been one of the most-requested — and neglected — features throughout its lifespan). The real problem is that an earlier promotional image for The Division 2 claimed, “Matchmaking is provided for every game activity and difficulty level,” which is obviously no longer the case.
Content Lead Hamish Bode addressed the community’s consternation in today’s weekly State of the Game stream, saying, “We do understand people have pulled up things we’ve said in the past about this subject, so here’s where it’s at in front of me right now, verbatim,” before reading the studio’s official statement: “We decided to not include matchmaking, a we don’t think this would make a good gameplay experience for random groups. The Raid will test your ability to communicate well, have a good build set up and will require great teamwork to beat encounters.”
True though that may be, players nevertheless feel that Ubisoft has reneged on its earlier promise. Although the devs don’t seem keen to change their decision anytime soon, Live Content Manager Yannick Banchereau has said, “We’re happy to keep the conversation going and see how it goes and how people like it and whatever […] and then depending on how the conversation goes, we will make adaptations.”
Meanwhile, for players not currently busy trying to gather up a group to take on the raid recently received two new missions to play through — provided they’ve purchased the game’s year-one season pass, that is. The two so-called Classified Assignments provide more narrative than loot, but players who want to learn more about the post-apocalyptic world of The Division 2 should find plenty to sink their teeth into.
