4 ms·

>...the US government of the last 10-15 years doesn't have the same viewpoints on anti-trust that they did 20+ years ago. The Nintendo NES came out in 1983. D

by opo 6y ago

>...the US government of the last 10-15 years doesn't have the same viewpoints on anti-trust that they did 20+ years ago. The Nintendo NES came out in 1983. Didn't they have control of all apps allowed to run on their machine? They weren't charged with anti-trust violations.

nick_kline 6y ago
They weren't the only gaming system. There are 2 phone ecosystems today and that's the central device in most people's lives, the phone is a bigger deal.
- kgwgk 6y ago
  How many gaming systems existed in the late eighties? What was Nintendo’s market share?
- iso1631 6y ago
  Sega vs Nintendo, which shortly after Sony enterred the game became Nintendo vs Sony, then Sony vs Microsoft Duopolies seem to be a natural state
AlexandrB 6y ago
This is actually a really interesting parallel. Like Apple/Google, Nintendo also became successful in part by tightly regulating their console in response to a quality problem previously caused by more open platforms[1]. The comparison breaks down somewhat though when you consider the size of the NES market (61.91 million units sold) vs. smartphones (1 billion+ sold). Nintendo, and the whole gaming market, may have just been too small for the justice department to pursue anti-trust charges. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#Release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#...
- kelnos 6y ago
  That's an interesting comparison to make, since ultimately Nintendo lost their court case regarding their control over who's allowed to create and publish NES games.
matheusmoreira 6y ago
> The Nintendo NES came out in 1983. Didn't they have control of all apps allowed to run on their machine? They didn't. The security of the consoles from that era was based on trademarks. The hardware would refuse to execute software unless it could find the manufacturer's name at some predefined memory location. Since these were trademarks, game companies had to obtain permission in order to use them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade The judges ruled that people had every right to reverse engineer existing games and produce compatible software for those consoles regardless of the manufacturer's wishes. The trademark violations were the manufacturer's fault since they made it necessary for games to work. The world was a much better place before the DMCA.

by opo 6y ago

nick_kline 6y ago

They weren't the only gaming system. There are 2 phone ecosystems today and that's the central device in most people's lives, the phone is a bigger deal.

kgwgk 6y ago
How many gaming systems existed in the late eighties? What was Nintendo’s market share?
iso1631 6y ago
Sega vs Nintendo, which shortly after Sony enterred the game became Nintendo vs Sony, then Sony vs Microsoft Duopolies seem to be a natural state

AlexandrB 6y ago

This is actually a really interesting parallel. Like Apple/Google, Nintendo also became successful in part by tightly regulating their console in response to a quality problem previously caused by more open platforms[1]. The comparison breaks down somewhat though when you consider the size of the NES market (61.91 million units sold) vs. smartphones (1 billion+ sold). Nintendo, and the whole gaming market, may have just been too small for the justice department to pursue anti-trust charges. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#Release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System#...

kelnos 6y ago
That's an interesting comparison to make, since ultimately Nintendo lost their court case regarding their control over who's allowed to create and publish NES games.

matheusmoreira 6y ago

> The Nintendo NES came out in 1983. Didn't they have control of all apps allowed to run on their machine? They didn't. The security of the consoles from that era was based on trademarks. The hardware would refuse to execute software unless it could find the manufacturer's name at some predefined memory location. Since these were trademarks, game companies had to obtain permission in order to use them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade The judges ruled that people had every right to reverse engineer existing games and produce compatible software for those consoles regardless of the manufacturer's wishes. The trademark violations were the manufacturer's fault since they made it necessary for games to work. The world was a much better place before the DMCA.