How can video game companies accept homebrew?

bnwchbammer

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So I'm doing a research paper, and I need some community input on this, soooooooooooo, what do you guys think can be done to allow the big three, and other video game companies to accept homebrew? What has been done that you like? Any opinions are great, and will really benefit me. Thanks guys!
 

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bnwchbammer said:
So I'm doing a research paper, and I need some community input on this, soooooooooooo, what do you guys think can be done to allow the big three, and other video game companies to accept homebrew? What has been done that you like? Any opinions are great, and will really benefit me. Thanks guys!


The game companies could easily release a different SDK than the retail game makers get. The homebrewer's SDK would have certain functions disabled to prevent exploits to their machine.

this is for future consoles im assuming
 

Jotokun

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Just do what Sony did on older ps3 models before the upcoming update. Allow homebrew, but disable access to your graphics hardware. They did this by allowing you to install an alternate OS(Linux), and the PS3 has only been recently cracked, and its been done after the new slim models came out which removed that feature.

By allowing the real hackers to have (almost) free reign, you stop the script kiddies from using the platform for piracy and stop development on something that could potentially challenge both your ability to licence developers and take away sales from licensed games.
 

FAST6191

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The 360 does have XNA too and relatively speaking a wiiware (and other *ware) license is not that hard to get (still far from easy enough to truly count here) but if you look back at the really old consoles then licensing was minimal/non existent. The PC is still a place where this happens all the time not to mention between paypal and game downloading applications (steam, direct2drive and the like) it has not been better since the downfall of compuserve in the shareware era (one of the last near ubiquitous payment methods).

Many game companies will look at a piece of your homebrew as part of your portfolio if you wanted a job in such a place- more than a few emulator authors have been approached too and if you know what you are looking for you can see vast tracts of their code used in (*higher end) commercial stuff. There are many examples of this in the FPS market with Valve usually getting mentioned (while you might be tempted to look at the PC market also look at the console one) although several other mod makers have "made it" at some level by themselves or with the help of others. Consider also that there are the ones you did not see; everyone loves a good underdog success story so some of the more mediocre stuff will not have the light shined upon it as brightly as others in relative terms "it was made by a new dev team and plays like it".

*similar things have happened to shareware authors. Indeed most (?) of your expensive MS software owes more than a passing nod to such people.

I should mention apple but only to say they are predatory and unpleasant (a similar situation to the PS3 Jotokun mentioned) and as such I would argue are a bad example to follow but not to study.

You also have to consider that even if you ignore coding issues (different dev kits and the like) it still takes a fair bit of polish (the oft toted examples of portal is a good one- search for the truly early stuff and you will see). That is not to say it is not fruitful for devs/publishers to operate in such a manner (you can do a search on the money involved/"saved" even if you take it down to basic maths x months, y cost assumed constant throughout, z "coding time", b "design" time).
 

Maz7006

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the whole idea of homebrew is that its relatively simple projects that are somewhat free. That is all good and fine, i don't have a problem with that, but game companies wanting some green wouldn't really accept that.
 

Forstride

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You have to start small. Companies aren't going to accept any game unless it's one from someone that works for them. Sell a homebrew game through an independent electronic retailer like GameJolt or other ones, or start your own shop for homebrew.
 

UltraMagnus

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stop selling hardware at a loss and use a proper, normal, business model. Then release an SDK publicly and let companies get on with it. So, yeah, work the same way PCs work.

Console companies are selfish capitalist overlords though and too used to making money from nothing, so they would never do that.
 

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i dont see where the problem is... they obviously cant hire everyone to be paid to make games, so why shouldnt everyine else try!
 

VmprHntrD

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UltraMagnus said:
stop selling hardware at a loss and use a proper, normal, business model. Then release an SDK publicly and let companies get on with it. So, yeah, work the same way PCs work.

Console companies are selfish capitalist overlords though and too used to making money from nothing, so they would never do that.

So what you're saying is, be Nintendo? They never sell hardware at a loss and always have used a proper business model whether it pisses of whiny 'core' fanboys or 3rd parties who love seeing loss leading behaviors.

As far as the question goes, doesn't Sony do this already kind of? Linux upcoming removal aside, they made it VERY cheap to get indies to get games to the consumers hands if they want to buy in for a quite cheap license. With that stunt we got Flower, Everyday Shooter, Superstardust, and more. Even Nintendo semi-did this too with Cave Story as well though that was more a third party helping the indie to get the game up there via their license but still close enough.
 

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Well there's XNA , just like ol' man FAST6191 said, and it is one way to go.
and also you could go kind of like the sony way and accept code but limit it to the CPU and no GPU, or something like that, somehow not accepting some unlicensed stuff on some part of the console that'd make piracy possible. but allow anythine else...

Making a different SDK isn't a solution I think, since it'd be too much work. Just accepting and not accepting some types of operations from the code in licensed and unlicensed apps is more likely i think.
 

playallday

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It never will work well.

The reason homebrew is homebrew is because the dev doesn't want to pay a crap load of fees for something he's just messing around with.

So far the best place for homebrew is Apple, and they aren't great.
 

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