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Xbox Live Gold Required For Xbox One Game DVR
Earlier today reports began circulating that Microsoft will require a Xbox Live Gold membership in order to access the console's Game DVR functions. Microsoft has confirmed with us that this is true.
Xbox Live Gold has traditionally been used to access Microsoft's premium offerings, including multiplayer and streaming apps like Netflix. Given the bandwidth and online storage requirements, it's not terribly surprising that Microsoft would want to motivate interested users toward an Xbox Live Gold membership.
Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox One will buffer five minutes of video, but when we asked about longer clips and recording forward (as opposed to capturing something that happened in the recent past), the representative said that more information would be coming on the feature.
[via One Hit Pixel]
Our Take
There are two important points here. The first is that Microsoft just added value to the Xbox Live Gold membership. Many people already have one just for multiplayer and/or Netflix. Now Microsoft has enhanced the value of that $60 membership. The other choice was devaluing it by leaving game DVR open to all.
The second point is that we don't yet know how Sony will handle its recording service. Again, given the bandwidth and storage needs, it wouldn't be surprising if video sharing is part of the PlayStation Plus membership on PS4.
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