4 ms·

> Would they also make Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft open up their platforms? God I hope so.

threeseed 3y ago
It would be terrible for consoles. They would not be able to recover their costs early enough in the lifecycle. Which means that the time between console releases would be much longer than it already is. It also would put Nintendo in an untenable situation since they rely on low price hardware as their differentiation.
- raincole 3y ago
  The would be the end of consoles. At this point consoles have very few advantages to PC. If they got "opened up" it would be zero.
  - ethbr1 3y ago
    It's just look a lot more like a standardized PC. Which they they probably should by this point.
    - raincole 3y ago
      Perhaps Steam Deck model is actually the future of the consoles...
    - threeseed 3y ago
      Sure. But there would be zero incentive for Sony, Nintendo etc to build one. Because Acer, Asus etc could simply come along and undercut them on price and still have access to the exact same game catalog. And then they would each decide to add more proprietary features or add more performance. And so you've just recreated the PC gaming market again.
      - wdwind 3y ago
        > And so you've just recreated the PC gaming market again. What's the issue with that?
        scarface_74 3y ago
        Really? What’s the issue for not having a known target to optimize for?
        TillE 3y ago
        That hasn't been a serious issue for 20 years. The overwhelming majority of big games are now being released for PC on day one, the only exceptions being platform exclusives and Rockstar games. Developers certainly have no problem making PC games.
        scarface_74 3y ago
        I can go to a store today and buy a Sony PS5 and know that it will play every game designed it for with the same quality as any other PS5. Can you say the same about buying any PC? Will that be true for any game you buy for the next five years?
    - MBCook 3y ago
      You’re right. I can’t wait until I can’t play games on my PlayStation because I forgot to install audio driver update 2.367 which conflicts with rendering update 7.829. That will be a much better experience for me as a consumer. There is no need to open up consoles. You don’t have to buy them. The PC is incredibly healthy as a gaming platform. Please let people like me who want to gaming appliance have it without screwing it up.
      - tavavex 3y ago
        Opening up a platform doesn't mean that it suddenly has to be cross-compatible with everything else. It just means that software that is written for your platform is no longer under full control of the manufacturer. Why wouldn't you want things like accessible emulators, some control over the OS, more games in general (since developers no longer have to invest thousands into licensing and proprietary software) and much more? Besides, even if someone somehow forced, say, PlayStation to be cross-compatible with other platforms for some reason - it's not like the issues you described are exactly plaguing PCs nowadays. With very rare exceptions (like ancient or heavily modded games), the experience is pretty much "Press 'Play' on your launcher of choice -> Play game".
  - teaearlgraycold 3y ago
    A beautiful future
  - malfist 3y ago
    That isn't a bad thing for customers.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  All I’m hearing is we’d significantly reduce ewaste and force consoles to compete to keep themselves relevant by not allowing them a monopoly.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    And this is why posters on HN make horrible lawyers. How is a market with three competitors, four if you count PCs and even more if you count phones “a monopoly”? Btw, the judge in the Apple case said that Apple doesn’t have a monopoly in game distribution
- LordKeren 3y ago
  I don’t think Nintendo has ever sold consoles at a per-unit loss. It would actually probably help them since it would raise the cost of Sony and Microsoft’s offerings even higher over theirs
  - threeseed 3y ago
    No but they make a lot of money through licensing and Nintendo Store sales. That would all disappear if you could side-load any content.
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      Does "side-load any content" mean unlimited piracy? Otherwise I don't understand your argument at all. But adding side-loading does not enable unlimited piracy.
      - threeseed 3y ago
        Piracy isn't the issue here. It's the fact that Nintendo, Sony etc wouldn't be able to enforce any licensing revenue since users could just install any game directly. For Nintendo it would decimate the company since it's their primary revenue stream.
        Dylan16807 3y ago
        Look at all the games that are sold through Steam, just for convenience and stability. I think the benefit of being in the Nintendo store is far higher than that, and they'd do fine. And they have lots of first party games too.
        TillE 3y ago
        Nintendo makes a ton of money on first-party games, and they could easily continue releasing their games exclusively on their consoles. They'd lose very little. Random sideloaded games are just irrelevant when people are buying the systems for Zelda and Pokemon.

It would be terrible for consoles. They would not be able to recover their costs early enough in the lifecycle. Which means that the time between console releases would be much longer than it already is. It also would put Nintendo in an untenable situation since they rely on low price hardware as their differentiation.

raincole 3y ago
The would be the end of consoles. At this point consoles have very few advantages to PC. If they got "opened up" it would be zero.
- ethbr1 3y ago
  It's just look a lot more like a standardized PC. Which they they probably should by this point.
  - raincole 3y ago
    Perhaps Steam Deck model is actually the future of the consoles...
  - threeseed 3y ago
    Sure. But there would be zero incentive for Sony, Nintendo etc to build one. Because Acer, Asus etc could simply come along and undercut them on price and still have access to the exact same game catalog. And then they would each decide to add more proprietary features or add more performance. And so you've just recreated the PC gaming market again.
    - wdwind 3y ago
      > And so you've just recreated the PC gaming market again. What's the issue with that?
      - scarface_74 3y ago
        Really? What’s the issue for not having a known target to optimize for?
        TillE 3y ago
        That hasn't been a serious issue for 20 years. The overwhelming majority of big games are now being released for PC on day one, the only exceptions being platform exclusives and Rockstar games. Developers certainly have no problem making PC games.
        scarface_74 3y ago
        I can go to a store today and buy a Sony PS5 and know that it will play every game designed it for with the same quality as any other PS5. Can you say the same about buying any PC? Will that be true for any game you buy for the next five years?
  - MBCook 3y ago
    You’re right. I can’t wait until I can’t play games on my PlayStation because I forgot to install audio driver update 2.367 which conflicts with rendering update 7.829. That will be a much better experience for me as a consumer. There is no need to open up consoles. You don’t have to buy them. The PC is incredibly healthy as a gaming platform. Please let people like me who want to gaming appliance have it without screwing it up.
    - tavavex 3y ago
      Opening up a platform doesn't mean that it suddenly has to be cross-compatible with everything else. It just means that software that is written for your platform is no longer under full control of the manufacturer. Why wouldn't you want things like accessible emulators, some control over the OS, more games in general (since developers no longer have to invest thousands into licensing and proprietary software) and much more? Besides, even if someone somehow forced, say, PlayStation to be cross-compatible with other platforms for some reason - it's not like the issues you described are exactly plaguing PCs nowadays. With very rare exceptions (like ancient or heavily modded games), the experience is pretty much "Press 'Play' on your launcher of choice -> Play game".
- teaearlgraycold 3y ago
  A beautiful future
- malfist 3y ago
  That isn't a bad thing for customers.
aaomidi 3y ago
All I’m hearing is we’d significantly reduce ewaste and force consoles to compete to keep themselves relevant by not allowing them a monopoly.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  And this is why posters on HN make horrible lawyers. How is a market with three competitors, four if you count PCs and even more if you count phones “a monopoly”? Btw, the judge in the Apple case said that Apple doesn’t have a monopoly in game distribution
LordKeren 3y ago
I don’t think Nintendo has ever sold consoles at a per-unit loss. It would actually probably help them since it would raise the cost of Sony and Microsoft’s offerings even higher over theirs
- threeseed 3y ago
  No but they make a lot of money through licensing and Nintendo Store sales. That would all disappear if you could side-load any content.
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    Does "side-load any content" mean unlimited piracy? Otherwise I don't understand your argument at all. But adding side-loading does not enable unlimited piracy.
    - threeseed 3y ago
      Piracy isn't the issue here. It's the fact that Nintendo, Sony etc wouldn't be able to enforce any licensing revenue since users could just install any game directly. For Nintendo it would decimate the company since it's their primary revenue stream.
      - Dylan16807 3y ago
        Look at all the games that are sold through Steam, just for convenience and stability. I think the benefit of being in the Nintendo store is far higher than that, and they'd do fine. And they have lots of first party games too.
      - TillE 3y ago
        Nintendo makes a ton of money on first-party games, and they could easily continue releasing their games exclusively on their consoles. They'd lose very little. Random sideloaded games are just irrelevant when people are buying the systems for Zelda and Pokemon.