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wredcoll 3 hours ago

Valve was a plucky underdog against the established publishers and, while dominant today, still has reasonable competition, sony is a giant corp with a reputation and a monopoly on playstations.

alephnerd 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> sony is a giant corp with a reputation and a monopoly on playstations.

That's like saying Volkswagen has a monopoly on Volkswagen cars.

Sony clearly does not have a monopoly on the video game industry, and a plurality of video games are cross-platform across consoles, PCs (Windows/Linux), and even MacOS.

wredcoll 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It would be slightly more accurate to say "volkswagen has a monopoly on volkswagen cars... and all accessories and replacement parts"

But the analogy breakdown because a car is more or less a complete item you buy and use for a purpose (aside from consumables) whereas a playstation is completely useless without games to play on it.

So maybe volkswagen brand gas would be the best analogy here.

dcow 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Not really. I can plug a generic usb cable into my Playstation and it charges my aftermarket controller just fine. I can even use aftermarket screws or put the console in an aftermarket enclosure.

scheeseman486 an hour ago | parent [-]

Where can I buy an aftermarket optical drive and motherboard?

dcow an hour ago | parent [-]

Probably the same place you can buy an aftermarket CAN board and controller for your Volkswagen.

Oh, looks like cars and consoles aren't that different after all.

scheeseman486 41 minutes ago | parent [-]

Except for the software ecosystem which is the main driver of revenue for consoles and exists largely to support the sale and distribution of products from third parties, all of which is centrally controlled by the platform holder.

Someone else in the thread made the comparison to fuel, I'll go with that. Last time I checked, there was no such thing as petroleum DRM.

scheeseman486 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Volkswagen cars aren't a platform that fosters a billion dollar marketplace of third party sellers that contribute the bulk of value delivered by the product.

nalekberov 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If I want to move from point A to point B, I can choose from BMW, Audi or any cheaper Chinese brand.

But I cannot play 'Astro Bot' on another platform.

dcow 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You can't get the Volkswagen engine sound or drive experience in a BMW, though.

nalekberov 15 minutes ago | parent [-]

Remember? Moving from point A to point B.