Just days ahead of the Xbox One's Friday North American launch, Microsoft has announced that the ability to stream live Xbox One gameplay through gaming-focused site Twitch.tv will not be available until early 2014.

"We know the ability to instantly broadcast gameplay is something the gaming community is excited about, and we are too," the company said in a blog post this morning. "We are working to ensure the initial Twitch on Xbox One broadcasting experience meets the expectations of the Twitch community, so while this feature won’t be available right away, we’ll let you know as soon as it is ready. Our goal is to deliver it during the first part of 2014."

Direct-from-the-console streaming was one of the most enjoyable new features we found in our evaluation of the PlayStation 4, which supports simple, live gameplay broadcasts through both Twitch.tv and Ustream. Twitch search results list hundreds of streams from PS4 gamers, and Sony's Head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida was among those trying out the feature in a popular stream on the eve of last Friday's launch.

"We’re stoked at what we’ve accomplished so far, but we’re not stopping here," Twitch Community Manager Jared Rea wrote in a blog post discussing the PS4's Twitch integration. "We’ll be working with Sony in the months and years to come to improve and enhance this feature to make it as great as possible."

The absence of gameplay streaming on the Xbox One until next year removes a big feature differentiating the console from the previous generation and could put it at a disadvantage among early adopters. Microsoft and Twitch have been talking up the Xbox One's live broadcast capabilities since E3 back in June.

Despite the broadcasting delay, Xbox One users will still have the ability to record gameplay clips of up to five minutes and upload them to Xbox Live and their own private SkyDrive accounts. Microsoft did point out, too, that the Twitch app available on the Xbox One on launch day will allow users to view outside streams through their console. Hey, maybe they can watch people enjoying the broadcast feature on the PS4 while they wait!