Call of Duty Director Shuts Down ‘Skill-Based Damage’ Claims as Sony Patents System for Maintaining ‘Even Playing Field Between Cross-Platform Players’

The design director of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has refuted claims of "skill-based damage" after a new Sony patent suggested plans to dynamically adjust player skills — both up and down — for "an even playing field" during cross-platform play.

The patent, published in 2025, describes a system that monitors two players in a single session. "A first valuation of a performance metric measuring gaming effectiveness is determined for the game play by the first player, a second valuation of the performance metric is determined for the game play by the second player," and if the "difference between the first valuation and the second valuation does not satisfy a threshold band of operation that is based on global skill levels of the first and second players," the game of the first player would be "augmented" to normalize play between the two.

In other words, if the session doesn't seem quite balanced, "real-time augmentations" could level the playing field between players, allowing for differences in, for example, players using a touchscreen or a controller to input controls, and those using a keyboard and mouse.

When a player suggested this could be evidence that skill-based damage was already available in Call of Duty games like Black Ops 7 — a different proposition of the often-used but contentious skill-based matchmaking — design director Matt Scronce was quick to shut this down, tweeting: "I promise you, there's nothing behind the scenes modifying any of our damage values."

So, how would Sony's patent actually work? The patent itself doesn't present much detail, but does offer a few scenarios for making a game easier or harder to play for a corresponding player, or limiting features for console and providing "shortcuts" to mobile users to ensure the former didn't have an advantage.

The patent also suggests disadvantaged players could be offer simplified in-game tasks, be given additional visual cues when playing, with the augmentation system also making it "easier or harder" to interact with the UI.

For years, Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) has been one of the hottest of topics in the competitive multiplayer first-person shooter space, and particularly within the Call of Duty community, with some proclaiming it ruins the experience, and others saying it helps level the competitive multiplayer playing field. High-skilled Call of Duty players often complain about SBMM for creating "sweaty" lobbies full of similarly proficient players.

Interestingly, though, Treyarch made changes to Black Ops 7's multplayer so that open matchmaking with minimal skill consideration was the default. It marked a significant change for the shooter, which had previously used SBMM by default. Activision had previously tried to explain how Call of Duty’s SBMM works, claiming skill is determined based on a player’s “overall performance" including kills, deaths, wins, losses, as well as mode selection, and recent matches as an overall metric across all Multiplayer experiences.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.