FreeGameDev

It kind of hurts to see these game consoles being sold at major store chains, and the only things available are proprietary software as video games. I should be using PCs (which I am) if I wanted to avoid all this, but still, I can't avoid them entirely. In this generation, we have:

• Microsoft Xbox One
• Sony PlayStation 4
• Nintendo Switch

Of these three consoles, only the last of them can run GNU/Linux in a usable manner (using https://gbatemp.net/threads/l4t-ubuntu-a-fully-featured-linux-on-your-switch.537301/; this is the only way I can run FOSS games on a current-generation console), provided that the unit is an unpatched one made before July 2018. The second of them can also do it, but only if a unit is running an older firmware version.
I already know about how locked-down these specialized computers are meant to be, and the high amount of control these manufacturers exercise over publishing games on their platforms. Though it is possible for FOSS game projects to use SDKs to run on these consoles, they can only exist in an unofficial capacity or as homebrew. I also wonder why they can't get software ratings (they technically can get them by being published on the Google Play Store). Why is it currently impossible for FOSS games to appear as published titles for those systems? I could be making unfair comparisons as many AAA games are developed by multi-person teams, while many FOSS are developed with far fewer people, or even only one person.
I so wonder about these stark differences between the worlds of console video games and FOSS games, even though I cannot change this situation myself. I fear that they will never be able to cover all of the genres that exist out there. Should FOSS games make more inroads into one of the last frontiers that FOSS has yet to conquer, or is all that I'm thinking just pipe dreams?
Of course, I could always use the nuclear option and avoid all the non-free copyrighted games and the characters inside them that exist out there, but it's too late: I'm already attached to some characters from them (really, if I could ~95 years for the copyrights of these characters to expire, that's super of me, but that's way too long without legislation to change these durations). My dependency is likely to only grow, sadly.

Deleted.

I've seen a few. I know Battle for Wesnoth has an android version, and I know there are some others as well.

Atari has a new console coming out that will support linux on it. For the big three, what do you want? Are you looking for a free software game to be made available on that platform? Are you looking for the freedom to modify that game and put the modified version on that platform? It might be possible to get a free software game available but it wouldn't have the same freedoms.

At one point I consider this important as well. Now I don't care as much. The console systems are simply locked down PCs. It's not hard to make a console like setup with a computer.

Lyberta {l Wrote}:How many FOSS games have you seen on Android? And that OS is more open than consoles.

I've seen some actually, e.g. OpenArena, STK (I think at least), the portable puzzle collection, someone else mentioned Wesnoth, ...

Anyway, I think people interested in freedom simply don't like proprietary consoles. But there are libre consoles you know -- at least handheld ones -- and they're quite successful and popular, so libre people likely prefer those.

dulsi {l Wrote}:Atari has a new console coming out that will support linux on it. For the big three, what do you want? Are you looking for a free software game to be made available on that platform? Are you looking for the freedom to modify that game and put the modified version on that platform? It might be possible to get a free software game available but it wouldn't have the same freedoms.

I'm looking to see at FOSS games be made available on the major console platforms, although it's likely to just be pipe dream of mine. I already have an unpatched Nintendo Switch that will allow me to enjoy the console-exclusive games and FOSS games via L4T Ubuntu (but only one of the two at a time, and I can get the best of both worlds, although unofficially). I've already had gut feelings that this could be quite hard to get FOSS games onto these locked-down platforms, so I don't expect that I can find too many like-minded people who want the same.

drummyfish {l Wrote}:Anyway, I think people interested in freedom simply don't like proprietary consoles. But there are libre consoles you know -- at least handheld ones -- and they're quite successful and popular, so libre people likely prefer those.

I believe that I found a post of yours that lists some libre consoles: https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=12175#p86886 I'll repost the list here:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

    - http://uzebox.org/wiki/Games_and_Demos                    UzeBox games, all seem to be GPLv3
    - http://legacy.gamebuino.com/wiki/index.php?title=Games    Gamebuino Classic (B&W) games
    - https://gamebuino.com/creations                           Gamebuino META (color) games
    - https://community.arduboy.com/c/games                     Arduboy community forum, many small FOSS games
    - http://arduboy.ried.cl/                                   Erwin's Arduboy game collection, tagged libre games
    - https://talk.pokitto.com/c/programmers-talk               Pokitto games
    - https://tinycircuits.com/blogs/games                      Tiny Arcade games
    - https://gbhh.avivace.com/games                            open source games for GameBoy
    - https://tic.computer/                                     TIC-80 FOSS fantasy console (sadly not so many FOSS games)


I may look at some of these later on. It's the fame of the three major consoles that got me worried that FOSS alternatives will have a hard time getting there, if that's desired for them.

Major consoles API are closed source and distributed under NDA. Debugging requires special Dev version of the consoles.

Worldblender {l Wrote}:

• Microsoft Xbox One
• Sony PlayStation 4
• Nintendo Switch

Three companies that don't like to give up any control at all, at least two of which go as far as to compromise your security in order to have more control over the user.

These are platforms that borrow from free software, they don't <3 it at all. Control and freedom do not mix very well-- the more you have of one, the less you have of the other.

The videogame consoles are another jail. You cannot update the hw of a vg console or change the sw. But the price of your soul is a cheaper hw and awesome games. It remembers me to the Cinema where they sell expensive popcorns and drinks and you can not bring any food from outsite (In my country it's like this).

Because some years ago I loved vg consoles such as GP32.

Ah, consoles. I remember how much I loved my Nintendo as a kid. The reason, games just worked, you just plugged them in. You did not have to do fooling around doing things like creating a boot menu, or have special settings or software installed on your computer in order to run the game. All consoles are pretty much the same, no hardware customization, just a bunch of identical boxes built for the sole purpose of playing games designed just for them.

So, no, people don't really want the thousands of buggy half finished games and stuff that won't work on your hardware/software setup for consoles. The whole joy of console gaming is plug-and-play.
That said, I haven't really touched console gaming since my playstation 2.