Xbox One’s DVR allows for ‘true’ user-generated content, says Forza 5 dev

Friday, 12th July 2013 11:38 GMT By Dave Cook

Forza Motorsport 5′s lead gameplay designer Rhett Mathis has shed light on why the Xbox One’s DVR and footage-sharing capabilities will give rise to a new breed of user-generated content on consoles.

Speaking with OXM, Mathis commented on Forza 5′s scope for emergent gameplay moments, similar to those found in games like Skyrim and GTA 4, and how the Xbox One’s DVR video tech can help players capture them for all to see.

“That is a form of UGC,” he stated, “because I have tremendous creativity I can put into it and it can be captured with a capture card. Now with DVR, that becomes true UGC, because I can use the system from Fable, I can use the system from Grand Theft Auto to create moments that were never planned by anybody, and then share them.”

Mathis then added that Forza 5′s Drivatar mechanic, which creates AI opponents and a digital counter-part based on your actual play-style, will add another lair of emergent play to the game. The system is so advanced that your Drivatar can be raced against by others when when you’re not online, yet it will react to races just like you would if you were playing.

Mathis added that this will give rise to more DVR-worthy moments, “That’s the same when we see Drivatar. I’m going to train, my Drivatar is going to watch me, and do things that we never intended. We’re going to be able to react, it’s going to do cool stuff, and you can capture that on DVR. It’s going to have the liveries, the paint schemes, the cars that I like. We’re going to get tremendous emergent gameplay that’s going to come out of this.”

He continued, “The strength of a team that’s worked in UGC for ten years as such is that we don’t actually predict what they’re going to do. We’re going to just open it up knowing its going to surprise us. The system is living and breathing and organic and its going to do things we didn’t expect. And what we expect is really exciting to us, but what we don’t expect is where the real magic is going to happen.”

What’s your view in unexpected feats and emergent gameplay, as well as the ability to capture and broadcast them on Xbox One and PS4? Is it a feature you’d use a lot? Let us know below.



  1. mojo

    it allows for recording gameplay..

    #1 1 year ago
  2. Aullah

    “The system is so advanced that your Drivatar can be raced against by others when when you’re not online”

    What a stupid idea.

    #2 1 year ago
  3. ps3fanboy

    we know there will be restrictions so how ‘true’ this will be, no one yet knoews. but i am shure that the mighty holy multibuttfanboy legendarychump will tell us after the release of this game…

    #3 1 year ago
  4. Dave Cook

    @1 yeah man, like PS4′s share button.

    #4 1 year ago
  5. ps3fanboy

    @4 dave cookie, was that a hint for a ps4 release of this game?, you better take it bak or the xbots gonna get angrey, lol….

    #5 1 year ago
  6. Lengendaryboss

    Shut up and get back to flushing your dirty toliet :P

    #6 1 year ago
  7. ps3fanboy

    @Lengendaryboss, shure when ur in it i will flush it :P

    #7 1 year ago
  8. fihar

    Seriously, why is that stupid?
    That is hands-down one of the most interesting ideas I’ve ever seen for a racing game. We’ve had ghost cars for as long as I can remember, why not take it one step further? This way I won’t have to worry about shitty connection while kicking your metaphorical ass.
    In fact, I can see Turn 10 using their Top Gear collaborations for this. Why not have The Stig upload his own Drivatar for us common people to race?

    This Drivatar might be the biggest thing in asynchronous multiplayer since the Autolog.
    Of course, I still have to see how good the Drivatar actually is, but on paper, this is a great idea.

    #8 1 year ago
  9. Lloytron

    I like how they completely forgot that OnLive allowed video clip sharing over a year ago. It was fun but ultimately pointless.

    #9 1 year ago
  10. Madgame

    Noy sure I understand the appeal of drivatars. It’s AI, plain and simple, and we already have those. What satisfaction will you get by racing and beating someone else’s drivatar? It isn’t them, it isn’t even a ghost of their time/lap. It’s AI that tries to drive like you, but I doubt it will really behave and react the same.

    “Hey man, I beat an AI car with your gamertag on it and even though it wasn’t REALLY you, I beat you!”

    #10 1 year ago
  11. Madgame

    ^^ Am I missing something regarding the drivatar concept?

    #11 1 year ago
  12. tracyis300

    Im sure they are going to let you race againts a famous race car driver or some sort, and if you beat them, you get a unicorn car

    #12 1 year ago
  13. Ireland Michael

    Only Microsoft could blow the ability to record and upload video into some sort of revolutionary innovation.

    I never understood why Microsoft does this. I mean, every company hypes their products, but Christ, these guys just don’t know when to tone it down at all…

    #13 1 year ago
  14. actuallyisnotafox

    tbh for a next gen game you shouldnt be looking towards a this gen scope, hell gta 5 is saying its scope is as big as a set number of their previous games combined.

    #14 1 year ago
  15. SplatteredHouse

    @4 But, I think the PS4 has an advantage in its implementation because to any player, the ability to share there is prominently positioned. It’s more likely to occur to someone to press the button, than stop what they’re doing in-game, bring up a slide-in menu and access that way, then select content and shoo away the slidey menu. It may be there’s 2 steps in one case, with perhaps double or more, in the other.

    It’s not as integrated (have you seen the share button demonstrated on PS4? My impression from watching the demonstration by Mark Cerny, on-stage, was that the use is abundantly simplistic by design to initiate and even enjoy capturing selections of gameplay highlights)

    #15 1 year ago
  16. super3001

    ps3.5 share is not across all games.

    #16 1 year ago
  17. DrDamn

    Devs can temporarily disable the functionality to protect spoilers being leaked but it is an OS feature they need to actively disable, not something they have to actively support.

    #17 1 year ago
  18. OrbitMonkey

    Xbone, making it easy for you to record gaming clips for the NSA’s entertainment :)

    #18 1 year ago

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