Come March 11th, one of the often sited shortcomings of the Xbox One will be fixed – Twitch streaming is coming. Apparently streaming at (up to) 720p instead of the PlayStation 4’s max of 540p, if you’re going on pure resolution (which is something I intend to get in depth on another day), Xbox One is the winner. However, that’s not where the features end.
Microsoft and Twitch are touting the Xbox One Twitch integration as a true next-gen setup. You can start broadcasting either via the menu system or Kinect with the command “Xbox, Broadcast,” and once you are live you can place your Kinect camera image on screen and see up to 10 lines of chat – reportedly the most available on a next-gen system (not that there’s a ton of competition in that field). Party chat will not be streamed, though, which strikes me as something of an oversight. What that amounts to is you talking and responding to what sounds like nobody during your stream. As someone who usually streams with other people, I have had a few instances of one person’s mic not being recorded and I can say that it makes for a rather confusing watch.
We will definitely be trying it out on day one, so give us a follow on Twitch to catch when we go live. Not coincidentally, Titanfall arrives the same day so countless people will be filling the Twitch airwaves with pilot-vs-titan combat footage, meaning that we will likely be going with a different game, just to be contrary.