Xbox One Live streaming not available at launch

Microsoft has announced that a much-anticipated feature promised for the Xbox One, the ability for players to live stream their games to their Twitch.tv channel, will not be available on launch day.

The company admitted that the feature would be missing on the console and promised to make it a priority for a 2014 release. Microsoft did not mention why the feature would be delayed, or if there were any technical reasons that were preventing the feature’s rollout.

“We know the ability to instantly broadcast gameplay is something the gaming community is excited about, and we are too,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We are working to ensure the initial Twitch on Xbox One broadcasting experience meets the expectations of the Twitch community, so while this feature won’t be available right away, we’ll let you know as soon as it is ready. Our goal is to deliver it during the first part of 2014.”

In the meantime, Microsoft announced that the Twitch app for Xbox One will be available on day one to view live streams by other Twitch users, subject to Xbox One owners being Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Microsoft was also quick to point out that users can still edit and record video gameplay clips of up to five minutes in length and upload these to their Xbox Live profile or their personal Skydrive account.

Sony’s Playstation 4 launched with game streaming enabled and currently offers users the ability to stream gameplay to their Twitch or Ustream channels. Gameplay recording on the PS4 has a cut-off time of 15 minutes, but the videos are currently only uploaded to your Facebook account.