Xbox Live has built up an incredibly passionate fanbase of gamers over the past few years, and Microsoft has learned a lot about its community in that time.
With Xbox Live on the Xbox One, multiplayer gaming is bringing out the big guns. Xbox Live is now smarter, more attuned to your personality and, above all, a whole load more fun.
A perfect match
There's nothing more tedious than waiting in a lobby only to be matched up with a bunch of trolls and someone's gran who thought she'd try out the Xbox One "for a laugh". But we've got good news: those days are well and truly over.
Using some clever algorithms, Xbox One's Smart Match feature will ensure you're paired with others based on skill, language and reputation. Over time, Smart Match will learn more about you and your friends and continue to evolve, always improving its accuracy in matching with the right players.
But this might be the even better news: Smart Match lets you go off and do other things while it's pairing you up. Taking advantage of Snap mode, you can watch TV, browser the web or use another app. Heck, you can even play one game while Xbox One is matching you up for another. Once it's found your perfect match, Xbox One will notify you so you can jump in and start playing.
Caught in the act
The Xbox One's DVR features offer an incredible way to capture and share your most amazing gaming moments. And if that wasn't enough, you can harness the power of Upload Studio to create your own personal mini movies, mixing in slow motion, voiceovers and other cool features for a reel of highlights.
As for the achievement chasers, Xbox One DVR will automatically record your achievement unlocks, so you can be sure you've got evidence at hand when it comes to rubbing in your friends' faces.
Eight's company
Think local multiplayer has had its day? Gaming laughs in your face. While Xbox One will impress you with the power of the cloud, it also supports up to eight controllers for those more intimate multiplayer experiences.
How will game developers harness the power of eight-player multiplayer? We're excited to find out - there's so much potential here it's mind boggling. But Xbox One is just as much about sharing experiences with friends and family as it is with competitors from across the globe.
Riding the cloud
There's nothing that showcases the power of the cloud quite like Xbox One, and multiplayer gaming is where that power really takes off. With over 300,000 servers, Xbox Live is more impressive than it's ever been, and games like Forza 5 are truly taking advantage of this by using the cloud to build AI with human intelligence.
With server-based gaming, not only can you have more players in on the action but everything is much more reliable. None of the interruptions and problems you get with peer-to-peer gameplay - just smooth sailing all the way.
Follow me
Xbox One now lets you add up to 1,000 friends on your Friends list, which you can share your game statistics and achievements with every single one of them too. Then you have followers to consider - these are friends with different levels of privacy, and you can have an infinite amount of them too.
Anyone can follow anyone and you can choose how much information your followers see. It's this awesome community that forms the foundation of the Xbox One's multiplayer experience.
Achievement unlocked
Of course, we couldn't talk about multiplayer gaming on the Xbox One without discussing the great new enhancements to achievements. Xbox One takes the achievement system we all know and love and carries it across all of your games, meaning your accolades are no longer limited by title.
As well as the achievements you're already familiar with there are now time-based challenges to go for, which will only be available for a limited period of time. Some challenges even require the gaming community to work together to complete them. Keep a keen eye out for those ones.
Don't feed the trolls
There are passionate gamers and then there are just jerks. The Xbox One solves this problem with Xbox Live's new reputation system, which takes into account your behaviour online based on feedback from other players.
If you're a "Good Player", you're in the green, yellow means "Needs Improvement", and red is a worrying "Avoid Me". This reputation is available on every player's gaming card so you can be sure that the trolls stay in the dungeon.
