No, man! Don't acknowledge that the PC isn't the king of the market and that consoles aren't actually a very small fringe. PC gamers have been known to kill for less.
But anyway, its worth pointing out that all forms of DRM come from the PC not having the control that the OP said was "Wrong".
edited 24th Feb '11 2:35:27 PM by IndigoDingo
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No, man! Don't acknowledge that the PC isn't the king of the market and that consoles aren't actually a very small fringe. PC gamers have been known to kill for less.Sometimes, I find myself wondering just what you're trying to get Sony non-fans to say.
edited 24th Feb '11 2:41:21 PM by Recon5
"well, I gueess maybe we PC gamers can get a little up ourselves."
crazy and proud of it
The PC is hardly even in the same markets as most console games, hence people who measure sales of console games that are also on the PC will think that the PC sucks. Looking at it the other way, you could argue that consoles suck because they have poor sales of games about being a seafaring merchant of the Hanseatic League. Or, that the Amiga was better than both the PC and the consoles because the Amiga produced a higher quantity of techno music artists in Europe during the 90's.
Back on topic, as noted by other posters, open-source hardware and gaming platforms have been made and will continue to be made, they continue to gain more and more ground, and just look at what Linux has accomplished to get an idea of what might happen to the hardware side of things.
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The thing is, will there ever be an open source console that caters to people that just want to:
1. Buy it.
2. Buy some games.
3. Insert the games into the console.
4. Play. 5. Complain about the games on the internet.
As far as I know, only mainstream consoles are that accessible at the moment. Even PC games and gaming P Cs may need a bit of fiddling to get right.
Oh lordy, I smell a "Linux will take over the world" speech. . . *rollseyes*
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DUMB
Haiku's where it's at, mang.
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I'm certain developers will come flocking to a console that's easy to make games for.
And even easier to pirate them with.
edited 24th Feb '11 3:38:57 PM by Miijhal
Well, some will. Shovelware developers.
Only Sane Fox
WORLD Tree: 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 themmetaphysician: 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).This is exactly what I was saying in the first place. Just slap together $300 worth of PC hardware, toss on Steam, and sell it as a console. There's no functional difference between such a PC and a console from any of the big three console companies. It's the same procedure with both Steam and all the current consoles: log in, play games.
Accidental mistakes are forgivable, intentional ones are not.
If you toss on steam, its not open source anymore is it?
Only Sane Fox
The Steam Console approach would probably get the biggest userbase.
If however, you want to go for a COMPLETELY open-source system, then you'd have to code the hardware, the BIOS, the operating system, the lot.
Could make for a project for the brilliant minds who hang around on Sourceforge.
Accidental mistakes are forgivable, intentional ones are not.
But like I said, there'd be zero money in it, but a tonne of effort would have to go in.
I feel like this is gonna end up like that Simpsons "A World Without Zinc" thing, where exploring this idea will only lead to all the benefeits of creator control in consoles that we overlook and take for granted.
A Pheasant Experience
A simple solution would be to make a box that runs Steam and a few licensed emulators for defunct console hardware. That way you have an easy to use box with a good library of games, as well as something to keep your box exclusive from would-be competitors.
Then again, I'm not sure just how you'd be able to drum up enough noise to promote this thing...
If such a box ever gets off the ground, I totally want a Steamcast.
edited 25th Feb '11 12:58:29 PM by TheGinkei
And "Reality" is unveiled. What did it want...? What did it see...? What did it hear...? What did it think...? What did it do...?
Once more, Steam is a form of DRM, meaning it is an example of creator control, and putting it on there would be against the idea of an Open-Source machine.
Alas poor Indrema! Fuschlatz O Reilly, I knew it well.
Why don't we just all form a community that will decide upon a hardware spec, and make a special tiny highly optimized Linux distro to run on that spec with full compatibility. And then just GO NUTS.
NOT THE BEES
Actionscript, yo.
Or you could try doing stuff in Open GL or something, but lolno.
Aren't there already Flash based consoles though? I could have sworn one of the Leap Frog things could be hacked to play Flash.
Alternatively one could fix the issues with the Dingoo.
Indigo Dingo: Probably not, they'd just insit they got $4500 worth of components "for $250"
metaphysician: Its not "perceived difficulty." In quite a lot of cases, its *actual* difficulty.I'm not saying this is ALWAYS true, nor that straight conditions on the PC always work perfectly (they don't, though consoles aren't always trouble-free either,) but after a bit of gentle investigation this usually proves to be so. A level playing field would be a stock PC running a stock game with stock settings, which of course almost never happens IRL.
Its always going to be cheaper and easier to make a game for a console ( all else being equal ), simply because a console has *one* configuration of hardware and software.The difference, of course, would be that you could take the training wheels off (after an “OOGA BOOGA”-type warning) if you felt like dealing with the typical PC experience.
Indigo Dingo: But anyway, its worth pointing out that all forms of DRM come from the PC not having the control that the OP said was "Wrong".But like I said, there'd be zero money in it, but a tonne of effort would have to go in.
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games developed by people without jackbooted thugs browbeating them into compliance, sold without racketeering payoffs embedded in their prices.Well, jackbooted or not some thugs may be required to ensure that the proceeds are split fairly between the developers of the games and the developers of the console- unless no one is supposed to make money from the console, it being open-source and all.
That's the idea, a DIY console but with sold games. Ar least that's the assumption I gathered from this thread.
I think the idea is basically two things:
- A standard API for PC games that would allow them to (optionally) play just like a console game with some features shut off. This could be enabled both on normal PCs and on the faux consoles described below.
- A standard type of PCs (faux consoles) any mass manufacturer could produce that would be sold preconfigured to use this option by default, operating off the same business model as normal PCs (I.E.: Sold at a profit.) For whatever it's worth, I recall the MSX and 3DO worked similarly.
Pricewise, <$100 (netbook guts in a box) for something Wii-level, ~$200 for something 360/PS3-level, upward from there for more robust specs. Maybe system requirements could be boiled down to a single digit “Hardware gen” number for cover art, too.
edited 25th Feb '11 5:24:49 PM by EricDVH
Its not "perceived difficulty." In quite a lot of cases, its *actual* difficulty. This isn't touching the issue of DRM, where most console games thankfully still don't have any. Or the issue of 'valuable ignorance' ( "Yes, I could entirely learn how to operate a high end gaming PC, and run stuff on it. However, I would rather use my time and mental energy to do *other stuff.*" ).
Its always going to be cheaper and easier to make a game for a console ( all else being equal ), simply because a console has *one* configuration of hardware and software. You don't have to account for compatibility with multiple O Ses and builds, multiple CP Us, multiple video cards, etc. This doesn't mean PC is dead, it just means PC gaming isn't going to wipe out console gaming, even if the entire market spontaneously transformed into genius computer geeks.
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