[zerohp]

Three companies have wall gardens for game consoles and nobody cares about that. Those three companies own the entire console market. There's no alternative.

Why doesn't the EU do something about that? Why is Apple an exception?

[kibwen]

This comment makes it sound like Apple shouldn't be forced to open up their hardware, but the better conclusion is that game consoles should be forced to open up their hardware. This is (allegedly) Hacker News, we should be all for giving people more control over the devices they (allegedly) own.

[lockhouse]

Just don’t buy closed devices if that’s what you want. There’s no shortage of open devices available to buy.

Complaining about iPhones and game consoles being closed is like complaining that your Honda Civic isn’t good at off-roading and won’t tow your horse trailer.

[newaccount74]

> There’s no shortage of open devices available to buy.

I'd like an open device that supports iMessage and Facetime.

I don't understand why I should have to give up all the iOS software that I really like just because I want to run one app on my device that Apple doesn't allow.

[fsflover]

Which open consoles can I buy nowadays?

[lockhouse]

Buy a PC.

There is also dev mode on Xbox One and later consoles:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/xbox-dev-mode/9nljhzjrn0f4...

[dotnet00]

"Walled gardens" when MS has a policy of porting all their games to Windows and also offers an official way for users to run custom software on the device.

Agreed on the other two though, both should also be forced to open up.