Xbox One Won’t Support Twitch Streaming Until 2014, But Videos Can Be Uploaded To SkyDrive

While Twitch live streaming on PS4 is touted as one of the system’s best features, with initial reception to the service being nothing less than glowing, Xbox One will see a delay on this front, as the streaming service won’t be available until 2014, though other Twitch features will.

We know the ability to instantly broadcast gameplay is something the gaming community is excited about, and we are too. We are working to ensure the initial Twitch on Xbox One broadcasting experience meets the expectations of the Twitch community, so while this feature won’t be available right away, we’ll let you know as soon as it is ready. Our goal is to deliver it during the first part of 2014.

Although this wasn’t confirmed for launch, Microsoft did reveal it back in June alongside various other new Xbox Live features, so it was expected. While the PS4 app only allows you to stream yourself and watch other PS4 streams, the Xbox version of Twitch will have the full catalogue of content, though it will be interesting to see whether this includes PS4 streams or not.

Meanwhile, the recently detailed SkyDrive functionality will allow you to essentially export your game videos elsewhere – to your PC hard drive for editing, or manually straight to YouTube. We previously knew that on-console video uploading wouldn’t be available at launch, but this seems like a very suitable work around – the PS4 currently does not allow you to export videos to a PC.

Since there’s no restrictions or limitations, it really opens the market, making it much easier for creators to control and edit content as they please, and it will even record the last 30 seconds of footage automatically when you ask it to, ready to be transferred elsewhere with the use of SkyDrive.

So, it’s both a win and a loss – you’re getting a much more open system for uploading videos, with the possibility of exporting to a PC-based editing suite and uploading to YouTube, though the live streaming features are a lot more restricted, with no option for casual users to catch some gameplay on Twitch.

It’s just a matter of which is more important. From the buzz we’ve seen around PS4 Twitch streams so far, they’re paramount in getting the word out about games just by showing someone playing it live. But then again, much the same can be said for YouTube videos.

Source: Xbox Wire 1 / 2