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

News by Dave Cook Contributor

Published on July 12, 2013

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.