The Xbox One's built-in video editor just got a lot more powerful
Microsoft has been touting its Upload Studio since before the Xbox One launched, but until now, the video editing suite only offered a few options for gamers. Now its first major update is bringing a ton of new features -- it can splice together recordings to run for up to 30 minutes, drop in text overlays and toss in tons of new effects and transitions including many styled for games like Forza Horizon, Halo and Call of Duty. The biggest change, however, may be the ability for players use the Kinect camera to drop themselves into the video, using green screen effects without the need for an actual green screen backdrop. According to Major Nelson, the system can see your body and pick it out of the background, but we've seen enough camera glitches and voice commands missed to be skeptical until more people have tried it out. There's a demo video laying out the new Upload Studio experience embedded after the break (plus a clip I tossed together with the new tools), and if you have an Xbox One the update should be live right now for you to try out.
In the battle of creature features Sony has significantly stepped up its game since launch with augmented reality sets for the Playroom and an improved video editor of its own, and now Microsoft is responding. I gave it a quick est, and while I wasn't able to check out the green screen effect yet, the new Upload Studio offers budding video editors a lot more than the old one did. With just a little time and effort it should be easy to put together a highlight reel befitting SportsCenter's Top 10, and sharing it to OneDrive was painless. It's a little annoying to have to jump over to the YouTube app to upload it there, but even that only took a couple more clicks once I'd created the video clip.
Old Upload Studio:
New Upload Studio:
