The Duskbloods will run on a ranked matchmaking system that keeps new players away from the game’s most practised ones, FromSoftware president and game director Hidetaka Miyazaki told IGN in comments reported by Eurogamer.
Miyazaki said highly skilled players will tend to be matched with each other and newer players with other newcomers, specifically to avoid lopsided matches as the game’s skill gap widens over time. Skill-based matchmaking has been a long-running flashpoint in multiplayer games, with Call of Duty and Apex Legends both drawing repeated criticism from players who find it makes lobbies punishing.
In terms of really, really good players, we definitely plan on having the matchmaking system work in a way so that it’s ranked, and players who are really good tend to be matched with other players who are great, and players who are new tend to be matched with other new players just to avoid situations like you had mentioned.
He added that players who are not consistently winning can still unlock story content and character customisation through ordinary play, so the game has something to offer outside its combat. The hope, he said, is that players are drawn in by the story and the world first and can choose to work on their play from there.
Not necessarily at launch
Miyazaki stressed that the ranked system might not arrive with the game and may come later. He also described features aimed at making the relationship between veterans and newcomers a positive one rather than something new players avoid.
Those included event customisation — making certain in-match events rare, or more likely to appear when a long-time player is in the game — and an Alliance system that would let a newcomer ask to be paired with a high-ranked player, while high-ranked players could set their own preferences to prioritise pairing with newcomers. Miyazaki compared the intent to leaving signs in front of a boss in FromSoftware’s other games, and said the team wants the arrangement to be positive for both sides rather than splitting the two groups apart.
None of it is settled. Miyazaki said nothing is locked in from the current Network Test build, and that FromSoftware is still watching how the game’s more experimental systems — including the Sigil and Virtue point systems — land with players before deciding how matchmaking evolves. The Network Test runs in phases, one per day from August 21 to 24.
The Duskbloods launches as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive and is a departure from FromSoftware’s usual single-player focus. Miyazaki has previously indicated the studio wants to return to single-player games once The Duskbloods and Elden Ring: Nightreign are behind it, describing the pair’s multiplayer focus as coincidental rather than a change of direction.