NEW YORK CITY — If you love the idea of broadcasting your gaming, but you don’t try because of an aversion to complicated hardware and software, then you’re in luck with the upcoming next gen. Both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One include built in broadcasting and gameplay-recording features.
We’re planning on messing around with these features in the wild very soon for both consoles, but Sony gave us a demonstration of how it works on PlayStation 4 at a dedicated review event. The system is always recording gameplay and saves up to the last 15 minutes of action. It also enables players to broadcast their gaming to Twitch or Ustream, but it isn’t unlimited. This is Sony’s video party, and they have some rules.
“[Video recording and streaming] is games only,” Sony Computer Entertainment’s manager of product planning, Toshimasa Aoki, explained during the demonstration.
This means you can’t record the PlayStation interface or apps. You’ll still need hardware for that kind of thing. That shouldn’t affect very many people, since most just want to share their gameplay experiences. And it makes sense that Sony wouldn’t enable a way for gamers to record and share whole episodes of Adult Swim shows they watched on Netflix.
The limitations don’t end with that.
“Developers can say they don’t want certain parts of the game recorded.” said Aoki. “We have an API call, and developers have control over that.”
Again, you are giving up some freedom when using Sony’s video solutions. That includes the possibility that your stream will simply cut off when you reach a part gated off by an over-protective studio. If you want no restrictions, you’ll have to invest in video recording hardware.