One of the reasons I support Microsoft’s efforts in the gaming space is because of some really bold steps they took over five years ago in regards to Xbox Live. This podcast (featuring one of my favorite Microsoft folks Scott Henson) throws around a really well-placed term: “heavy lifting”. Essentially, Microsoft decided a long time ago to take things like matchmaking, friends lists, and voice communication off the hands of developers and integrate them into the development platform (now known as XNA). This means that those items (and any that are folded in over time) will work consistently across different titles. The flipside of this is that those features need to have flexibility at the API level or creativity will be stifled (there hasn’t been much report of this happening, as many developers have commented on Microsoft’s willingness to adapt the Live platform over time, but it is certainly worth mentioning).
For this reason, it is of the utmost importance that new features are consistently introduced for developers into development kits. Sony is slipping a small but QUITE NOTICEABLE and IMPORTANT feature into their latest dev kit release: Youtube video recording and uploading! It’s no secret how important Youtube is in our day and age, and having a direct pipeline from your game directly to one of the world’s most viewed websites is amazingly intelligent. I applaud Sony for this move, and I eagerly look forward to the first implementations of this feature.
Loading ...