A new announcement from Google has revealed that a new feature will be released to Google Play Games in the next few days. The feature allows consumers to record gameplay footage right on their smartphone and tablet. Furthermore, the footage wouldn’t be restricted to just video games running on your Android device but instead will offer the ability to record footage from your front-facing camera along with audio commentary. Once the recording is finished, consumers are then able to easily edit their captured footage right on the device and then can upload it directly to YouTube.
Duncan Curtis made mention in a post on the Official Android blog that over a hundred billion minutes of gaming videos and live streams are watched each month on YouTube. He went on to further state that there are massive YouTube channels dedicated strictly to video game related content such as VanossGaming, which generates millions of views per video. Until now, recording gameplay footage wasn’t the easiest task when it came to mobile video game applications, but with this new feature it will give anyone the chance to record and share their gameplay content.
There are still some variables that are not quite answered yet about the feature, such as if there happen to be any limits as to how long a consumer can record. What we do know so far is that consumers can capture gameplay in either 720p or 480p along with the ability to add video capture from the front-facing camera or commentary through the device microphone. Additionally, we know that this feature will start rolling out in the next few days within the United States and the United Kingdom, while other countries will soon follow afterwards.
This seems to be Google’s way of further increasing the amount of video game related content providers on YouTube. Recently, Google provided some competition towards Twitch with YouTube Gaming, a standalone application and website which strictly focuses on video game-related content, such as live streams and shows. Through this update, Twitch may take another hit when it comes to gathering new viewers and content providers for their own website, though only time will tell if this new Google Play Games feature will prove to be a real success and an attention grabber.