Epic Games gives update on sub-region matchmaking
Epic Games has given a long-awaited update on sub-region matchmaking, confirming the feature has been enabled for select regions around the world.
Matchmaking has always been a hot topic within the Fortnite community, as players battle with ping issues on a daily basis, including during the Summer and Fall Skirmish events.
First mentioned in a State of Development post back in August, Epic Games has finally shed light on the specifics of sub-region matchmaking and announced that the feature will first hit the Asian, European, and NA-East regions first.
Sub-region matchmaking “is a new feature [Epic Games has] implemented that will find data-centers that are available in your region, determine which one provides you the healthiest connection, then place you in a queue that is pinged to that location to give you the best available connection.”
The Asian region got the feature first in September, and Epic has recently added it to both the Europe and NA-East regions.
When asked if the feature would be coming to other regions anytime soon, community manager Sean ‘MrPopoTFS’ Hamilton stated he has “no further details on that.”
While some regions might have to wait a bit longer to enjoy the benefits of the new features, those in the highlighted regions should see “significantly better service” from here on out.
Epic Games’ full statement can be found below.
Sub-region Matchmaking
Hey there!
We mentioned in the August State of Development blog that we’ve been working towards adding sub-region matchmaking. We enabled this feature for the Asian region in September and have just recently also added it to both Europe and NA-East. Follow the link above for all the technical details and read more below for additional information.
What’s sub-region matchmaking?
This is a new feature we’ve implemented that will find the data-centers that are available in your region, determine which one provides you the healthiest connection, then place you in a queue that is pinged to that location to give you the best available connection. Depending on your location, players will experience varying improvements to their ping and other network related performance.
When will this feature be implemented?
As of September 10, we launched the Singapore data-center and implemented the logic that allows for sub-region matchmaking. More recently we also added both Europe and NA-East to regions that use this functionality.
Will I always connect to the closest sub-region?
No. Not in cases where the player population for any given platform/playlist combination is not sufficient to guarantee a reasonable matchmaking queue time. In cases like this players will be defaulted back to the “primary” data-center for the region for that match. So you may notice a difference in your in-match network conditions if you ping better to “Location A” than “Location B” depending on the time of day you’re playing, the platform you play on, and the playlist you select. We will be monitoring this feature closely and make adjustments as we find the right balance between network performance and match wait times.
What if I’m in a party?
When in a party, if you are in a region where sub-region matchmaking is supported, it will prioritize the location of whoever the party leader is.
What are our goals?
Our final vision and goal for sub-region matchmaking is to allow players for each region to automatically connect to the data-center which offer them the best possible network experience.
As we expand this functionality to other regions, we will be able to both provide significantly better service to underserved areas as well as optimize the experience for players in regions which already operate out of multiple geographically distributed data-centers. We’ll continue to determine which regions would best benefit from additional data-centers and keep you updated on these new locations as we add them.
Please continue giving us your feedback on this feature and let us know what you think!