[MBCook]

Back in the NES era with licensing restrictions, yes. I believe it was Tengen vs Nintendo? Also Atari vs Activision?

But the Switch, PS4, and XBox One ALL have closed app stores exactly the way Apple does.

If Apple loses a lot of people will have to find a new business model.

[p1necone]

I would love game consoles to have third party stores. As it stands I almost never buy console games through the PSN store/xbox store/whatever because (at least with AAA titles) games remain at initial launch price way too long, and are usually more expensive than retail stores.

[p1necone]

Although, it isn't only limited to online console stores, some publishers are pretty terrible on PC too. As an example - in my region (New Zealand) Call of Duty Black Ops is still $99 on Steam, and that released in 2010...

(Activision, you there? I still want to buy it but I can't justify that price for an 8 year old game, or even the half off sale price right now...)

[ariwilson]

You can buy digital codes to redeem games on those stores from third party retailers. Often at a discount.

[MBCook]

Really? I think I’ve only ever seen that for Steam/GOG.

[ariwilson]

Example: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-Digital/dp/B...

[MBCook]

I’ve seen the digital codes before, but that’s actually MORE expensive than disk.

I assumed they weren’t allowed to sell at a discount