Halo 4 developers adding Competitive Skill Rank system 'early next year'

Halo 4 will receive a Competitive Skill Rank (CSR) system to better match up players online "early next year when it's ready," according to Halo Waypoint.

Developer 343 Industries will take its time implementing the feature, said community manager Jessica Shea, because it will require "delicate tuning, testing and implementation" across three platforms: Halo Waypoint on Xbox 360 and the web, and Xbox SmartGlass. Shea added that 343 Industries wants to ensure it has "taken the time to test, tune and balance the CSR system in a live environment, and identify problems and potential exploits before launching the system [publicly]."

According to Shea, CSR is geared toward competitive gamers — it ranks players by their performance in War Games, Halo 4's competitive multiplayer component, in order to match up players of similar skill levels. Once the system is live, players will be able to see a detailed Skill Rank in Halo 4 user profiles. The studio will track CSR data from launch day, but has not yet decided whether the final CSR will be based on lifetime data or on data tallied after the feature launches in 2013.

The CSR system is part of 343 Industries' plan to augment Halo 4 with "significant features" such as clan support through title updates.