May 17, 2019 Matchmaking will come to The Division 2's raids.
five hours for the first team to complete Dark Hours, that squad had the advantage of proper communication and a hand-picked selection of teammates. At the moment, the raid is the only part of the game to not offer matchmaking, resulting in a much more difficult experience and a somewhat-disgruntled community.
Thankfully, however, Ubisoft is addressing the issue, and the game's associate creative director, Chadi El Zibaoui, says that proper matchmaking will definitely make its way to the game. Exactly what form that will take is still unclear, but more details are likely to come out in the not too-distant future.
In a stream last night, community director Hamish Bode asked El Zibaoui whether "some solution where people who don't want to have to go outside of the game to matchmake or find a group" was on its way. In response, El Zibaoui said yes, and that Ubisoft was "working on it."
"You need to be sure the team you are going to work with has microphones, speaks the same language, has the proper gear to the team. It's not about simple matchmaking as we do for the missions. A mission or any other content, eventually, you can play with randoms, and you will manage to beat that content. For the raid, if we deliver such matchmaking, it will be tougher, if not impossible, for you to complete the content."
Earlier this week on Twitter, Alexandre Guenounou, who is involved with the game's marketing, said: "No there is no matchmaking, you have to team up through clan lists, their friends lists or by inviting other players in the game social spaces before you launch the raid." In other words, if none of your friends play or have progressed far enough in The Division 2, you're a bit stuck for now.
The Division 2 is not the only looter shooter to not feature raid matchmaking, of course: approaching five years on from the launch of the original Destiny, this functionality is still absent from the interstellar service game. That said, it is easier to put a side together: the Destiny 2 raid, Leviathan, is for groups of up to six players.
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Raid teams might be more likely to communicate and thus more successful, but not including an option could alienate a healthy chunk of the player base from tackling some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences looter shooters can offer.