YouTube's developer blog has revealed that PlayStation 3 has integrated the YouTube API to allow integration with upcoming games. The upshot will be that players will be able to record in game footage and upload it directly from within the game.

Obviously, this breaking announcement means that few games currently support it , but Sony has confirmed that Mainichi Issho - a sort of artificial life Animal Crossing-esque game (as far as I can tell) - is the first to support YouTube functionality.

Devs will be able to integrate the technology in future titles and older games could get the same treatment from PSN updates if the creators are so inclined.

This may be one of the biggest innovations Sony has brought to console space since the PS3 launched. Even before the YouTube generation emerged, gamers have loved creating videos of themselves in-game, particularly when it comes to online FPSs and pounding German trance. To be able to do it direct from the game itself sounds like a great idea but on the downside it's one that will throw up a host of extra pressures for developers.

Allow me to explain: at the moment, there's one game that would take the most advantage of such a system - Halo 3. Not because it is such a hot bed of bragging rights and fanboyish obsession, but because of its excellent replay system that allows players to pick out exactly what happened to them and why. It has yielded a shed load of hilarious videos as random side effects of the physics engine causes gruesome deaths for no apparent reason. However, to enable that Bungie had to spend a lot of time programming the sophisticated replay tools, which smaller, less high profile developers may simply lack the resources to do.

Okay. Now let's suppose that devs can get around that problem. Even a replay shot from various perspectives is going to be a bit bland without at least some text to describe what's going on. Suddenly you need a rudimentary video editor as well. What if you want to put some music on top ? The editor now has to have access to content stored on the PS3 hard drive, not to mention expose itself to a host of potential music copyright issues.

Don't get me wrong, it does sound like a great idea, especially if a game can make it easy to edit and upload YouTube movies directly from the game. Sony may also opt to include a video editor and YouTube uploader directly into the XMB, which would be pretty sweet. But a can of worms has been opened and I'll be surprised if many games step up to take advantage of the system.