Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, I IMPLORE YOU... Enable your humble fans and customers to take screenshots whilst playing their games. The lack of easy screencapture (and in fact video capture) is a glaring omission in the console world right now.

What do I mean by easy screen captures?

1. Let us join our consoles to the local network and mount a computer drive as the destination for screenshots and video capture.
2. Have a common interface or button sequence for screenshot capture in ALL games. Don't force individual developers to build in their own screencapture utilities
3. Allow us to email the screenshots and videos.
4. Filenames for screenshots should be useable.
   1. eg: gamename-username-level-name-date-imagenumber.jpg.
   2. mirrors_edge-redemption-chapter15-1.jpg

How do screenshots help the game industry?

1. Gamers can capture their gaming experiences and memories more easily, which increases their passion for their games.
2. Being able to share your experiences and memories makes all games more engaging.
3. It is the digital equivalent of word of mouth advertising.
4. It encourages HIGHER QUALITY user made media which can only reflect positively on the console manufacturer and the developers. Have you guys seen those screenshots taken by cell phones or cheap capture cards?!?

I imagine that console manufacturers either don't believe screenshots and video capture are useful for their users (or for them as manufacturers), or else the believe that easy media capturing is a threat to intellectual property. If it is the latter reason holding you back, please reconsider. This fear is irrational in a world where the fans and the things fans do are as much a part of the success of games as many other factors, and in a world as digitally connected as we live in today, this type of fear is antiquated and represses the full potential of this amazing industry. And even if the fear were valid, there are some ways to limit the risk:

1. Limit how many screen shots a user may take per session (or in total) per game.
2. Limit the length of video that can be captured (say 30 seconds at a time).

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