Game DVR: Xbox One and PS4 constantly record gameplay
Both next-gen consoles will keep a rolling buffer of recent gameplay footage: five minutes for the Xbox One, fifteen for the PS4.
Social sharing has been an important feature for both of the next-gen consoles, with Sony and Microsoft quick to highlight their respective video sharing options in particular.
Both consoles will allow you to share videos of your 'great' gaming moments to online communities. To do this, they both need to be constantly recording a buffer of gameplay — the question has been how long these buffers would be.
Speaking CNET Australia's sister site Gamespot, Microsoft Studios' Ken Lobb said that the Xbox One would maintain a five minute long buffer: "we have a ring buffer game DVR basically, so the last five minutes of any game you're playing is always being stored locally on your hard drive".
The PS4 goes so far as to have a dedicated "Share" button built into the controller. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe recently confirmed to CVG that the PS4 will keep a 15 minutes buffer of gameplay. The Share button can instantly bring up this recording for editing and sharing.
Whether gamers will regularly use these features remains to be seen. While Twitch TV has been integrated into the Xbox One to allow live-streaming of ongoing games, the flooding of social networks with videos of gameplay might prove less compelling.
As always, the additional question for Australia will be the format and size of these video files, and how much impact sharing them may have on ISP data allowances.