Amongst the flashy new changes in the v8.10 update was a change to matchmaking that affects a large portion of the player base.
Cross-play is an option you can enable in your game to widen the amount of players you will be matched up against.
It was optional but is now becoming mandatory if you play on Xbox or Playstation.
In update v8.10 Epic has changed the cross-play pools. They combined the Xbox and PlayStation pools into one main console pool.
If players on either of those consoles choose to opt-out of cross-platform they will be restricted to creative modes and the playground.
Before this update players on the Nintendo Switch were also included in the same pool as players on Xbox and PS4. Now those players have been moved to a pool with mobile players.
That seems on the surface to be fair play to both groups as the Xbox and PS4 players have more tools available to them on average.
Epic says they think switching the Switch to this pool will provide “an on-average better per-game experience for both Mobile and Switch players.”
This change will have a couple of immediate effects. First, Xbox and PS4 players will have slightly harder lobbies as the Nintendo Switch audience leaned solidly towards bot on the bot to sweat spectrum (BTS).
Mobile is more towards the center of the BTS spectrum – compared to the Nintendo Switch – so that should mean the mobile lobbies will be easier on average.
Switch players will also have an easier time as both Xbox and PS4 are trending towards sweat lately and replacing them with mobile will make their average game a bit easier.
Where do you rate on the BTS spectrum? Are you happy about these changes to matchmaking?
