PlayStation 4 will continually record 15 minutes of gameplay data in the background for users to capture and publish online, a spokesperson for the company has confirmed to computerandvideogames.com.

Confusion surrounding the length of the recording process arose when Neil Brown, head of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's R&D group, said earlier this month that PS4 uses a dedicated hardware encoder to continually record the last "several minutes" of gameplay footage.

This claim was misheard and led to some reports suggesting PS4 captures "seven" minutes of gameplay data, while other articles claimed the console records "several minutes". But on Monday a spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe told CVG PS4 will continually record 15 minutes of gameplay data, as initially reported.

Recorded PS4 data can be brought up using the DualShock 4's Share Button, allowing player to edit and crop footage and share it across the PlayStation Network via Ustream.

Microsoft has revealed that the Xbox One will automatically record five minutes of gameplay and allow users to share that data across Xbox Live and social networks.

Ken Lobb, creative director at Microsoft Game Studios, said over the weekend that the gameplay recording initiative is internally called "Project Upload".

"So the idea is that you're always recording. 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," he said.

"Let me give you two scenarios. Scenario one: I'm playing online and I just did the best thing ever. I can't pause [because] I'm playing online. You can say 'Xbox, record that', it'll grab the last 30 seconds and save it for you to play with later.

"So now let's say you're not playing online and you do the best combo or you have the best fight ever," Lobb continued.

"You can finish after that fight, that thing you just did is within the last five minutes, you can go into that last five minutes and scrub it for the best stuff - I want that four seconds and this ten seconds and this 30 seconds and then I want that ultra combo.

"We have things, basically a wrapper, so you can put up something that comes before and after, the [example] video we showed said 'best of Evo', and you can also if you'd like voiceover and even put in some stuff from the Kinect camera, do picture-in-picture."

Posted: Jul 22, 2013 11:23 am
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/420108/ps4-continually-records-the-last-15-minutes-of-gameplay-sony-clarifies/