[bogwog]

I think this argument is less relevant today. Back in the early days of game consoles where they were very obviously designed for one thing only (ex: GBC, NES, etc), then sure.

But consoles today are only limited to gaming and entertainment because the manufacturer artificially limits which software can run on it (and who can develop for it).

I don’t know if they should be opened up like the iPhone (which 1000% should), but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they were. Some business models would have to be changed, but that happens all the time. Consumers will certainly benefit from more choices.

At the very least, even if they aren’t treated the same as phones/tablets, I think the ridiculous DMCA restriction about jailbreaking consoles needs to die. Jailbreaking a phone/tablet is legal, but doing it for a game console is illegal because it could maybe lead to piracy.

That’s obviously dumb (because jailbreaking a phone could also lead to piracy), but it also acts as a convenient legal barrier that protects console manufacturers from competition. In the early days of home consoles, some publishers would jailbreak consoles to be able to sell games without going through the manufacturer. EA did this as part of a strategy to negotiate more favorable terms with Sega, for example. The threat of competition forced Sega to the bargaining table, and in the end consumers benefited from the games EA was able to publish.