Sony has refuted earlier reports saying that the PlayStation 4 would block external gameplay recordings by encrypting its HDMI output with high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) while games are being played.

The announcement apparently came during this morning's keynote presentation by Sony executives, but it got a bit garbled by the translator ("PS4 users HDM [sic] to write to external memory (this part is unclear to me)" is how I captured it in our liveblog). "PlayStation 4 will support gameplay recording over HDMI" a Sony representative clarified to me later. "More details are coming in the future."

While that's heartening news for the growing hordes of players that regularly record gameplay content for YouTube and streaming services (not to mention working journalists and e-sports broadcasters), the language is still a bit vague. Sony pointedly didn't say that HDMI recording would work for all games, leaving open the possibility that individual developers will be able to turn on HDCP on a game-by-game basis (it's already been confirmed that individual developers can block the internal Share button functionality if they wish).

It's also unclear if HDMI recordings will be available by default or will require some sort of software or license fee to activate. In any case, it's good to hear the company taking steps to address the concerns of content creators that rely on external capture devices to generate the basis of their work.