People love watching other people play games. It started out by going to a friend’s house to watch them play the latest release, but has now expanded to a worldwide audience with the advent of YouTube, Twitch and other video services. This has been largely helped along by video capture equipment, but the next generation of consoles will have video capture built right in.

Sony and Microsoft both announced earlier this year that the PS4 and Xbox One will be able to record gameplay footage without the use of additional hardware. They wouldn’t say much beyond that at first, but both companies recently decided to detail their separate video recording strategies.

This week, Sony said that the PS4 will be continuously recording the last 15 minutes of gameplay footage at all times. At any time, players will be able to hit the new share button, and edit those 15 minutes on the console itself. From there, players can upload that video content to YouTube or other video services.

As for Microsoft, the company said that the Xbox One is continuously recording the last five minutes of gameplay footage. Internally, they call it “Project Upload,” and the idea is to allow users go back after a game and edit together the best moments. You can also say, “Xbox, record that” to have the console automatically save the last 30 seconds of gameplay.

In short, the PS4 saves more game footage, but the Xbox One appears to give players more recording options. Both sound pretty compelling, but we’ll find out later this year if it actually works.

Oh, and both consoles will have something for those who don’t like being constrained by time limits. You’ll be able to stream as much video as you want to each console’s respective streaming service – Ustream on PS4 and Twitch on Xbox One.

[h/t: CVG]