Can we take a moment to appreciate the irony of decrying platform lock-in when talking about the company that successfully launched a new gaming console against... Nintendo and Sony?

The world, it be complicated, yo.

The fact someone else did something is an absurd justification to do it as well. In a practical level, Xbox is much more locked in than Nintendo, as all Nintendo consoles have PC emulators for it and the devices can be jailbroken.

It's not absurd: it's literally proof of a viable and sustainable business model.

Consoles have always been packaged, standardized, and locked computers. That Nintendo is bad at security isn't proof of any great altruism. It just means they're not good at secure hardware design.

Except they weren't -- until Nintendo came along with their 10NES lockout chip.

Actually Texas Instruments had a go at it with their beige TI-99/4A, but by the time that came out most of the TI-99/4As that would ever be sold were already sold, without the lockout. But it was the NES that turned the locked box into a business model.

Are there even any games still that are only released on Xbox but not Windows so that you might need an "emulator"?

they <3 people running Linux on Azure. But the Windows Server PMs certainly don't like Linux. A large corporation isn't fully uniform.

> They <3 Linux

They love their Linux. I won't be surprised at all if some key games would magically become less compatible with WINE in the future.

So did Google. Turns out promises don't matter.

thatsthepoint.jpg

I've read the GP comment with a strong dose of sarcasm.

The comment is a reference to the song Not Evil.

Well, if they promised.

If they don't get an idealistic visionary, they will probably just follow the best course for doing business - serving as many people as possible.