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Raptr, a service founded in 2007 as a social network for gamers to stream and optimize PC games, will now offer a new feature, Plays.tv. Going from being a social network for gamers, it will now also be like Instagram for gamers, as they will provide the option to both capture and share gameplay recordings.

There are several options out there available for PC gamers to record and share clips, but what the community is lacking is a standardized solution. Mainly due to variations in hardware, gamers have to go with the solution offered for their setup, and when they do, they hardly ever upload it anywhere. Twich and YouTube are places for eager gamers to share lots and lots of content, but what about those of us that just enjoy gaming, but have the occasional epic moment or incredibly embarrassing fail that we would love to share with our friends? A place for gamers to hang out and show off their funny moments and achievements with friends is strangely enough not really a thing.

Raptr intends to provide us with such a place, and to make that easier they made a video capture technology designed to be fast and simple to use for every PC gamer out there. With the Plays.tv client, which launches in beta today, you can save a gameplay clip "as easily as taking a screenshot". It will start recording when you launch your game and when you want to capture a highlight, it will grab the last 20 seconds for you. You have several options to tweak this to work with your setup, it can be set at 480p or you can up the resolution to 1080p if your PC can handle it. Frame rate and bitrate can also be adjusted to your liking. Support for microphone audio and the ability to incorporate your face on webcam in the clip is added along with basic editing tools. According to Raptr, more features are to come in the future.

As of now, no privacy settings are available, and there is no such thing as monetizing. These options may be available further down the road, along with other tweaks and improvements as the community offers their feedback. The service is currently free of charge and free of ads, for now.

With this new service, Raptr is trying to fill the gap between what Twitch and YouTube can offer avid gamers and what your everyday social networks aren't really suited for. And they just might have found a niche, a lot of gamers aren't too keen on streaming their days away on Twitch, and feel that managing a YouTube channel is way too much effort. Uploading the clips is all it takes, and they will show up in their followers' feed. Like on Instagram, uploads can be marked and found via hashtags. I think I can already predict what a few of the most popular ones might be.

What do you think? Will you consider uploading your silly mishaps and epic moments on Raptr to share with your friends? Do you think there is room and need for this kind of service?

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