Two Slashes

Of course, it’s no suprise that I’m not a bigtime gamer by any means. I mean, I consider it a success if I can scrape off more than a few kills in Unreal Tournament GOTY, and I almost never play console games (yes, I suck worse). But locking the ones who do play more than me into a system so contorted and dismembered it’s like staring at a beheaded corpse in a fun-house mirror isn’t any fun. Why?

Well, let me set the record straight first. I’m not a big fan of cheaters. People who need to hack and mod their way through a deathmatch against a bunch of n00bs are just asking for themselves to be kicked around a bit. I don’t care what game it is, it’s just not right. (At least in a multiplayer setting; if you find yourself on a really hard level in a single-player game, and you use the codes sparingly, you end up restoring just a little bit of the lustre you lost when you got frustrated, right?)

But I still don’t see too many reasons why everyone needs to lock these consoles down so tight. In a world where decent home theater PCs still cost more than several of the current-generation consoles together (alright, one and a half if we’re counting in only PS3’s), it makes sense to give everyone something to muck around with. I mean, Sony abused the DVD capabilities of the PS2 to shove one into every home (hey, if it’s the cheapest DVD player at its launch…)

Some companies have played it smart and quickly embraced homebrew, both to draw customers and increase their revenue, and to encourage growth and enhancement of their product.  Rather than shutter everyone out, Cisco/Linksys extended their popular WRT54G line to cater to homebrewers when they made the generic router cheaper to manufacture and run.  TiVo regularly monitors the homebrew community for their products, and sometimes adds popular third-party hacks as features in the default TiVo system.  It seems that in just about every multimedia sector, you can find someone who offers open-source and homebrew aficionados the chance to show off their talent and extend the boundaries of the devices they hack.  Of course, in many of these cases, warranties are voided, but it is worth noting that many people are willing to sacrifice the possible cost of a new unit for the enhancements they gain as a result.

But as much as this happens in other industries, there’s absolutely no movement in the console market.  Partially, I can understand them.  They don’t want cheaters taking the fun out of games, and they certainly don’t want pirates making their games into a laughingstock of bits and bytes.  But they take it too far.

As a matter of example, take any recent cell phone.  Not really a smartphone, just your average, everyday cell phone.  Now, note that the firmware probably includes Java.  That’s right.  The cell phone manufacturer implemented Java, and left a framework which could be used for homebrew development.  To be reasonable, most of the applications you’ll see for a cell phone were probably coded with the idea that there is payment to be made somewhere down the line.  But the point remains that there is a sizable toolkit implemented on the phone itself, no problems required.

With such a toolkit already provided, it makes for little reason for anyone to resort to “exploiting” the device simply to get something that isn’t supposed to be running, well, running.  Third-party games on platforms like the PSP and iPod (aka free development and a reason for people to buy your product) only work when people find exploits that enable them in the first place.  Not only does it add value, the consumers will be able to add more functionality as they see fit.  All in all, an easy way to increase profits, the functionality of your product, and get privileged to see free market research as to what people are looking for and buying because of.

Why haven’t the console manufacturers realized that they’re giving up FREE DEVELOPMENT simply because they want to be a bunch of tightwads?  Wake up people, and realize that there are people willing to improve your products, whether you like it or not.  Maybe it’s in your best interest to embrace it, rather than hinder it.