This is irrelevant - the law makes zero distinction between "general purpose" and "specific" computing devices. They're all computers.

> Yet the anti-Nintendo sentiment in the country didn’t ultimately do much to help either of the two Ataris’ legal cases; the courts proved willing to buck that rising tide. In a landmark ruling against Tengen in March of 1991, Judge Fern Smith stated that Nintendo had the right to “exclude others” from the NES if they so chose, thus providing the legal soil on which many more walled gardens would be tilled in the years to come.

https://www.filfre.net/2016/04/generation-nintendo/

This was back in March 1991, mind you. The US courts decided that for some categories of things which compute, the manufacturer gets to control 100% of what runs on them. That makes them quite specific in my eyes.

I don't know the exact legal term, but that's what a walled garden amounts to. Yeah, you take a general computing architecture, and you lock it down by law. It doesn't need to be non-Turing complete or what have you to be "specific".

The difference is that Nintendo isn't a monopolist. When you are, you do not get as many rights to 'refuse to deal'. From the FTC itself "Under certain circumstances, there may be limits on this freedom for a firm with market power."

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...

Can you cite this "law" you're talking about?

Can you define a "general computing device" in a way that includes PCs and phones, but not game consoles?

That's easy. Can you run spreadsheet programs, image editors, IDES, etc by default on consoles? Just approved software, no jailbreaks, hacks, etc.

I can’t run Xcode on my iPhone either even though that’s what I need to develop apps for my iPhone. Even more strangely I can’t run Xcode on the iPad Pro despite it literally running the same chip that runs Xcode on a cheaper device (the Mac Mini).

Yes, all of this is available via web browser.

Ah, nice, can I do any of that offline?

Given you can't run most games on current-gen consoles offline I'm not sure that's the point you think it is.

Well, you've asked if it's possible, not if it's practical and convenient under any circumstances.

I can't edit my comment. Console vendors don't envision consoles as general computing devices, which kind of tends to end any sparky comments one might make on the topic.

Apple also doesn’t envision that you can run arbitrary root code on an iPhone either