D on next-gen consoles and for game development

[Nick Sabalausky]

On Fri, 24 May 2013 02:59:44 +0200
"Joseph Rushton Wakeling" <joseph.wakeling at webdrake.net> wrote:

> On Friday, 24 May 2013 at 00:06:05 UTC, Manu wrote:
> > Systems like WiiU/Wii/PS3/XBox360, etc all need runtimes, and 
> > those will
> > probably not be developed by the D community.
> > It would land on a general gamedev's shoulders to do those, so 
> > I would
> > suggest the approach here would be to make a step-buy-step 
> > guide to porting
> > druntime. Make the process as simple as possible for 
> > individuals wanting to
> > support other 'niche' platforms...
> 
> Do you think we could expect those ports to be given back to the 
> community when they get written? Or is it more likely that game 
> studios will keep their ports to themselves?

It would be prohibited by console manufacturer's
NDAs/developer-licenses.

If you're an official licensed console developer, you can't provide any
console-specific code or technical specs to anyone who isn't also
covered by the same licensed developer agreement. I'm sure it could be
released to, or shared with, other licensed developers (might be
paperwork involved, I dunno), but not to the general community.

Licensed console dev is fairly cloak-and-dagger (minus the dagger,
perhaps). Game console manufacturers keep a tight enough grip on their
systems to make even Apple blush.

For such a thing to be released back to the "community" it would have
to come from the homebrew scene (which AIUI, could then be used by
licensed devs too...or at least that was my understanding with GBA,
so my info may be out-of-date). An officially licensed developer would
lose their license, or get sued, or something.