Regulators removing the only choice a consumer has today for an end-to-end curated experience, a choice made by a minority of buyers, seems anti-consumer and an

Regulators removing the only choice a consumer has today for an end-to-end curated experience, a choice made by a minority of buyers, seems anti-consumer and anti-competitive given the options. Users are free to make a philosophy and convenience choice between PC and brand-designed consoles that come only with brand-curated catalogs and brand-operated stores. Consumers deal with the consequences, such as being able to have Cyberpunk 2077 from more than once source on PC, and from zero sources on Playstation. It’s unclear why users should not be free to similarly choose between Open Handset Alliance mobiles and mobiles with brand-curated catalogs and brand-operated stores. Nobody is forcing developers to support that philosophy, just as nobody forces an indie developer on Steam to land on Playstation or Xbox or vice versa. Disappointing to see this heated hue and cry where the majority want to squash the rights of the minority to have a device where everything it can do is available in a single well-curated trusted purchase and subscription place. Unsatisfied with majority share, various factions aligned around “open” are essentially trying to outlaw the commercial and market dynamics enabling the single-stop-shop console experience that a sizable but minority segment of consumers prefer even if it means they can’t have Cyberpunk.