Black Ops 3s improved matchmaking includes a Safe House for friends to hang out in

When it comes to the multiplayer and co-operative elements of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, developer Treyarch is aiming to do more than add a more acrobatic sense of navigation - the Californian studio wants to completely change the way it presents matchmaking and party interaction.

In the latest issue of Edge, studio head Mark Lamia discusses the new Safe House feature - a shared online space where teammates can spend XP, customise their gear and decorate their surroundings in between missions. "We’re architecting our own social system layer that’s going to arc over all three of the modes," comments Lamia. "You’re going to know where friends are and what they’re playing. When we looked at data from Black Ops 2, we discovered that people were playing multiple game modes in a single session, and we realised we had to make that easier, especially now we have a co-op experience."

The latest issue of Edge, with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on the cover, is out now. Download it here or subscribe to future issues.

Dom has been a freelance journalist for many years, covering everything from video games to gaming peripherals. Dom has been playing games longer than he'd like to admit, but that hasn't stopped him amassing a small ego's worth of knowledge on all things Tekken, Yakuza and Assassin's Creed.