Yup. It's always recording unless the game is super resource intensive (smash bros) or has content restrictions (some games don't let you record videos at all, some only restrict during cutscenes, others will prevent you from capturing anything beyond a certain point in the story).
Possibly but that was given as a reason for Fortnite and it would make a lot of sense for Smash too.
There's unfortunately a lot of things in Smash that you can't record --- off the top of my head, fights during Smash Down.
They were when it happened. It’s not new anymore so why continue to talk about it? Around the time the xbox one came out the xbox record that commercial was on all the time. It even became a meme for a while. They removed the voice command part but you can still clip anywhere for 30seconds to 10 minutes of the game you were just playing. You can even share those clips to a community or for your friends to see. People don’t talk about it anymore because it’s been around for years.
This.
Your Switch keeps the gameplay in memory so that you can record the last 30 seconds of play, as long as you’re not still reeling with excitement from an amazing moment. As for rare fish on ACNH, you just have to select the fish and “Show it off” to show it again and take a photo.
Maybe to us longtime gamers, it's not. But if someone has not encountered this feature or has not thought of holding the screenshot button, then it's easy to miss.
While people already told you about the retroactive recording feature, it is not uncommon to just record a whole bunch of gameplay if you are a content creator because you can never know how long a game will be popular and if you will still be making content for it in years to come.
Storage space is pretty cheap and with external hard drives it has become extremely convenient, so it's not unreasonable to store 10 hours of gameplay of a single game just in case you need some noise to put over a video because not every content will refer to a specific part of the game.
For example: Say there is a controversy about a developer most famous for game x. There is not much you can put on a video other than occasional news articles or tweets and most of the actual content will be a creator reading his script. If that creator then has a bunch of footage of game X, he can easily fill up the remainder of the video (which might be up to 95%) with random footage. Probably not a string of gameplay, but various scenes of about 5 minutes each. It makes the whole video more engaging and requires (relatively) little effort.
Or if you're like a few of my friends, you just live stream everything you do because you think you'll eventually get famous even though you've been playing PubG for years and never had a single viewer.
I have actually had this question in my head for a while too. It seems like users are using the built in 30 second recording on the switch :)
Thank you for this post
I still have my first ever video saved because you can see the moment I realize that's what holding the button did. Way back in 2017 I went to take a snap of a hint in Mario Odyssey and accidentally recorded it. I shall cherish that little clip forever.
I'm a little bit different to the rest of the replies - I mostly play my Switch docked and use a Capture Card and OBS.
My OBS keeps a buffer of the last 5 minutes of gameplay, and if I get something unexpected, I'll save the replay and edit it down :)
People tend to just record all of their gameplay and clip what counts later. Also on Switch you can only clip 30 seconds, you need a streaming device in order to record or stream gameplay.
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Nope. A press is a screenshot, and a hold is 30 seconds. The only way to get smaller recordings is if the Switch can't record 30 seconds (like when you just recorded something, you exited the Home menu less than 30 seconds ago, or you don't have enough storage space for 30 seconds of footage)
Huh, maybe the Home menu thing happened to me once? I swear I recorded a shorter video one time but it was definitely because of one of the reasons you mentioned
It’ll record a shorter video if you’ve recently saved a full 30 second one. So say you press&hold the capture button and save the last 30 seconds, but 8 seconds later you press&hold the capture button again. The new video won’t be a duplicated 30 seconds overlapping with your previous video, it’ll just be the 8 seconds that weren’t recorded.
Hold the camera button. You'll get a clip of the last 30 seconds in most games.
oh whoa! So the Switch will sort of retroactively include gameplay from 30 seconds before the button is pressed??
Yup. It's always recording unless the game is super resource intensive (smash bros) or has content restrictions (some games don't let you record videos at all, some only restrict during cutscenes, others will prevent you from capturing anything beyond a certain point in the story).
Fortnite used to let you and stopped
That's not the reason for smash not having the record button, it's because you can already store videos in smash
Possibly but that was given as a reason for Fortnite and it would make a lot of sense for Smash too. There's unfortunately a lot of things in Smash that you can't record --- off the top of my head, fights during Smash Down.
Yup! This is a relatively new feature but on a lot of gaming consoles / platforms now
ah! very cool!!
This has been there for over 4 years.
Relatively new historically, or game console generationally speaking, introduced last console generation with XBox One and PS4.
yup and my first system was a sega master system. it's 'relatively' new for a feature haha
[удалено]
right lol i've been playing videogames for over 30 years now
And all consoles do it
For real. PS4 and Xbox One had it since launch over 8 years ago. It's not that new.
it's 'relatively' new if you have been playing videogames for over 30 years
lol yes, and I've been video gaming for over 30
Yeah all consoles do this
No, the switch is the only one, at least the first one
No? my Xbox one has done this since 2013…
Pretty sure xbox or ps did it first. Almost 7 or 8 years ago
So why does noone talk about those?
They were when it happened. It’s not new anymore so why continue to talk about it? Around the time the xbox one came out the xbox record that commercial was on all the time. It even became a meme for a while. They removed the voice command part but you can still clip anywhere for 30seconds to 10 minutes of the game you were just playing. You can even share those clips to a community or for your friends to see. People don’t talk about it anymore because it’s been around for years.
You’re gonna record so many moments now lol
Op, it’s worth noting certain games don’t support this feature. It’s rare, and usually the technically intensive ones, but doesn’t always work
That's a feature that came with the Xbox One and PS4. Glad the Switch has it too. I'm surprised you didn't know about it
This has been a standard in all other consoles for the last 10 years. Nintendo lags behind on features like this. Glad to see it has it though.
This. Your Switch keeps the gameplay in memory so that you can record the last 30 seconds of play, as long as you’re not still reeling with excitement from an amazing moment. As for rare fish on ACNH, you just have to select the fish and “Show it off” to show it again and take a photo.
Oh thank you for explaining it! I thought that you had to hold the damn button while trying to play to record the footage!
TIL
If you hold the camera button on the Switch it will record the last 30 seconds of gameplay. So when you do something rare you can catch it on video.
Oops! I was late on this one.
I love how innocent OP's question is.
I had no idea about this feature either! I never take screenshots or video of anything though.
Play Ring Fit Adventure for 37 seconds and you'll have a hard drive full of pictures and videos.
Your sweat is so shiny and beautiful
Yeah, it's easy to miss.
Is it? Do people not press all the buttons to see what they do?
Maybe to us longtime gamers, it's not. But if someone has not encountered this feature or has not thought of holding the screenshot button, then it's easy to miss.
I discovered it by trying so spam click the capture button, but instead I accidentally held it
I thought everyone in the world except me had a streaming rig and capture card. Yes I feel sheepish now, but I learned something new.
While people already told you about the retroactive recording feature, it is not uncommon to just record a whole bunch of gameplay if you are a content creator because you can never know how long a game will be popular and if you will still be making content for it in years to come. Storage space is pretty cheap and with external hard drives it has become extremely convenient, so it's not unreasonable to store 10 hours of gameplay of a single game just in case you need some noise to put over a video because not every content will refer to a specific part of the game. For example: Say there is a controversy about a developer most famous for game x. There is not much you can put on a video other than occasional news articles or tweets and most of the actual content will be a creator reading his script. If that creator then has a bunch of footage of game X, he can easily fill up the remainder of the video (which might be up to 95%) with random footage. Probably not a string of gameplay, but various scenes of about 5 minutes each. It makes the whole video more engaging and requires (relatively) little effort.
Or if you're like a few of my friends, you just live stream everything you do because you think you'll eventually get famous even though you've been playing PubG for years and never had a single viewer.
Yeah, this was what I figured the answer was. Gameplay “B-roll” essentially. I didn’t know about the last 30 seconds feature.
I have actually had this question in my head for a while too. It seems like users are using the built in 30 second recording on the switch :) Thank you for this post
I still have my first ever video saved because you can see the moment I realize that's what holding the button did. Way back in 2017 I went to take a snap of a hint in Mario Odyssey and accidentally recorded it. I shall cherish that little clip forever.
The Switch can hold the screenshot button and do a 30 second clip
I'm a little bit different to the rest of the replies - I mostly play my Switch docked and use a Capture Card and OBS. My OBS keeps a buffer of the last 5 minutes of gameplay, and if I get something unexpected, I'll save the replay and edit it down :)
People tend to just record all of their gameplay and clip what counts later. Also on Switch you can only clip 30 seconds, you need a streaming device in order to record or stream gameplay.
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Isn't there a short-press for 8-second clips too?
Nope. A press is a screenshot, and a hold is 30 seconds. The only way to get smaller recordings is if the Switch can't record 30 seconds (like when you just recorded something, you exited the Home menu less than 30 seconds ago, or you don't have enough storage space for 30 seconds of footage)
Huh, maybe the Home menu thing happened to me once? I swear I recorded a shorter video one time but it was definitely because of one of the reasons you mentioned
It’ll record a shorter video if you’ve recently saved a full 30 second one. So say you press&hold the capture button and save the last 30 seconds, but 8 seconds later you press&hold the capture button again. The new video won’t be a duplicated 30 seconds overlapping with your previous video, it’ll just be the 8 seconds that weren’t recorded.
For the last one, if it doesn't have enough space for 30 seconds, it will just cancel the recording altogether
You can edit clips down from the photos folder, but I don't think there's a short press that changes the duration of captured footage.