The World Needs An Open-Source Videogame Console...

As much as I love my Wii and my PS 3, it's hard for me to ignore the fact that their respective manufacturers (especially Sony) like to control what we can and can't do. It's wrong. It's WROOOONG!!

We need a console that runs on an open-source platform. What Google have done for smartphones with Android must be done for console gaming as soon as possible.

edited 23rd Feb '11 3:25:35 AM by FuschlatzOReilly

....you mean the PC?

Not the PC, a system that is designed from the ground up for gaming. I'm particularly thinking of a system that operates in a similar fashion to the mainstream consoles we already have, except the platform is open-source so that anyone can make games for it.

edited 23rd Feb '11 3:31:35 AM by FuschlatzOReilly

And the profit in that would be where? A phone OS is not the same as a games console. T He investment for that is simply the creation of the OS and then priofit comes from liscencing it out. A phone manufacturer can then put it in cause its cheap and good. Both can make a healthy profit.

Here, not only would they have to make the OS, but the hardware too, as its a videogame console. They'd have to go out of their way to attract high profile developers to attract sales. They need to do this in spite of the fact that their "not taking control" means piracy will be rampant. They would however attract shovelware by the tonne. And to top it all off, online would be broken and virtually unplayble.

...

I hate it so fucking much when I don't think things through enough. It sounded like a much better idea in my head. I did consider some of that, but I guess not quite as realistically as I should have. I'm not gonna bother explaining it...

...can a mod please lock this thread? I'm too ashamed of myself to go any further.

edited 23rd Feb '11 3:49:37 AM by FuschlatzOReilly

They could set themselves up as the only manufacturer of the hardware, but any profit they make there (assuming that they start by selling the machines for a profit right away instead of making them loss leaders like M$ did) will dry up along with sales as soon as scratch building and emulation come along.

Really, go out of your way to make something as accessible as possible and someone will find a way of getting it without you. It's a noble idea and an awesome concept though.

edited 23rd Feb '11 3:50:09 AM by Recon5

I think Valve could do it. All they'd have to do would be to make a gamepad-optimised version of Steam and put out a set of x86 hardware specs for manufacturers to meet. As for the OS, either React OS or Linux would fit (probably Linux, given React OS still has a fair way to go in terms of Windows compatibility). Any business which assembles P Cs could put one of these consoles together. All the customer has to do when they get it home is log into, or create, their Steam account and they could start downloading games to play.

Accidental mistakes are forgivable, intentional ones are not.

Does the Dreamcast count at this point?

And "Reality" is unveiled. What did it want...? What did it see...? What did it hear...? What did it think...? What did it do...?

Even ignoring all else, the price structure would never work. If the manufacturer expected to turn a profit on the console sales themselves, they'd either need to charge so much the thing would be uncompetitive with other consoles ( and maybe even semi decent P Cs! ), or else make hardware several generations out of date. Particularly since they wouldn't just have to generate a per-unit profit, like the Wii. They'd need to generate a much higher profit to pay off fixed development costs ( R&D, factory setup, etc ).

In the end, if you really want open source gaming, get a PC. Hell, doesn't even have to be Linux; not like Microsoft cares what you run on their OS, particularly.

Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com

It's been done.

edited 23rd Feb '11 7:11:18 AM by Redhead

The new It Just Bugs Me!

There are also the Dingoo and the Pandora to consider =)

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

And the Phantom

\\

The first three seem to be niche machines (the GP 2 X is the only one I'm familiar with and that one's definitely a niche machine) and not because of any (evident) suppression by mainstream companies. The Phantom sounds like it would be awesome if and when it's released.

I'm guessing that the success of an Open Source console would ride on the ability of homebrew/indie developers to produce triple A titles, which I really hope to see one day.

edited 23rd Feb '11 4:33:35 PM by Recon5

Except AAA Titles cost time and money, both of which indie developers don't have and neither will the company who makes this theoretical console.

The company who makes this theoretical console would go bankrupt in months, there's no way to distribute the games in a physical media form if it's open source and an online store anyone can upload or download from would either be too expensive to maintain and be a giant mess, the differences between free games and non-free games, having to wait massive periods of time for AAA titles, the sheer size of what would be the AAA titles, the hassle is so great you might as well just go back to the PC.

The world needs the bulk of its seven continents to be healthy, alternative fuel sources and a fix to the Ozone layer.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

As I've shown before every other time this topic comes up, it's perfectly possible for any individual to build a $300 rig out of new retail parts from one store that outspecs a PS3. Keeping this fact in mind, such gaming PCs could presumably be mass produced at a profit for significantly less, and if a cut-down version of Windows (or whatever) was included with a standard XBMC-type game launcher (which promulgated certain “10' UI” guidelines for games to conform to,) it could easily stand toe to toe with the major consoles and an identical user experience.

The financial incentive would obviously be that developers wouldn't have to pay the console subsidies and be bound by devkit licenses. Of course, that would mean giving up their centrally controlled lockout and captive audiences.

Eric,

Yeah but at that point you may as well sell pre-made PC's that out-spec PS 3's for 300$ and have Steam installed on them, there's no point in creating a new format, new audience, new software when you could just make a Dev Kit with a UI and accompanying website and accomplish the same thing for less risk and less money.

Indeed. If your going to build what amounts to prepackaged P Cs, you might as well just build, well, prepackaged P Cs. That way, you have more available game options ( anything that runs on a PC ).

Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com

Killzone 3 just came out. Good luck.

So Killzone 3 increases the power of a PS 3 now?

I don't have too much to say.

No, the power was always there. This just exposed more of it.

Matching the power of a Ps3 on a PC for $300 is gonna be fucking hard.

Not really, just put the parts of a PS 3 inside a PC, there are things stronger then Cell Processors and all the other crap inside a PS 3, hell until the new 320GB Slims the PS 3 still used the b/g network cards instead of n.

Perhaps. But I can exceed it with more money.

Thing is, PCs, doing the same things as consoles, I think will probably be more expensive for the reason that consoles are highly optimized. PCs... well, they aren't. That's why it's better to buy a firewall appliance then to rely on one based on a PC. Thing is, PCs have more modularity and increase in power much faster due to the fact that new hardware comes out pretty much every month.

In other words, PC tech prototypes the stuff, console tech takes it and optimizes it for stuff. Something like that.

On-topic, this really does sound like the PC, and mainly for the reason that the main advantage consoles have is they have specific standardization which would probably be hard to maintain with an open-source console. Would be cool, though.

EDIT: Actually, can someone look up the price for all the components in a PS 3 and total em? Now I'm interested.

edited 23rd Feb '11 8:15:20 PM by TheInferno

"The fact that your food can be made into makeshift bombs alarms the Hell out of me, Scrye." - Charlatan

You've just reiterated what I said.

For the same reason (exclusives aside) that a lot of people use consoles as their primary gaming platform whether or not they own a PC that could mop the floor with it: Perceived difficulty. Once this stigma was tackled, the console industry would hopefully become just another bad memory.

If you really, really can't take my word for it, I can troll NewEgg to illustrate my point yet again.

Eric,

edited 23rd Feb '11 10:42:41 PM by EricDVH

Probably not, they'd just insit they got $4500 worth of components "for $250"

Oh and, don't pull that "percieved" bullshit, or we'll start going into "percieved" superiorirty of the PC.

edited 24th Feb '11 1:58:39 PM by IndigoDingo