Xbox One DVR Gameplay Recording Set For 720p 30fps No Matter What

Using Microsoft's built-in Game DVR, the Xbox One has been revealed this week to be recording clips of gameplay at 720p and 30 frames per second. This is regardless of if the game itself is outputting at a higher resolution. This information comes at a bit of a surprise to some – especially those looking to record at full resolution – but is explained in short this morning by Marc Whitten, Chief Xbox One Platform Architect.

Speaking with IGN, Whitten made it clear that Game DVR inside Xbox One captures "beautiful clips" at 30fps in 720p. Though he doesn't say so explicitly, it would seem that the slightly smaller size was chosen so that uploading to the web and sharing these clips would be made as quick and seamless as possible.

"The first thing you'll see with our game DVR is the integration of our Upload service on the console. This service allows you to manage, edit, and share your content. Your clips are stored in the cloud. Also, you'll see games making "magic moment" videos of your gameplay based on the game DVR functionality – all seamlessly integrated.

You'll be able to see these clips in the Xbox One Guide, in your own game DVR collection, and when you are looking at gamercards on the system. You'll also see games take advantage of this platform capability and do interesting things to integrate captured game footage into the game experience itself." – Marc Whitten, Chief Xbox One Platform Architect

Some games are speedier – up to 60fps, the fastest we've seen thus far – and some are higher resolution – 1080p is as high as it gets on Xbox One, but for the functionality in Game DVR, this machine's presets will have to do. Game DVR automatically records the last five minutes of gameplay and is able to save 30 seconds of gameplay at the tap of a button – and that's without interrupting your game, mind you.

Microsoft spoke up about this service at the initial unveiling event for the Xbox One and made note of a massive jump in Microsoft-run servers set to store this data as well. Where Xbox in general worked with 500 servers earlier this year, Microsoft boosted to 15,000 in May, and will have 300,000 servers for video and other Xbox Live oddities by the end of the year. That might be sufficient for the beastly amounts of recording that'll be going on – so they hope!