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  • Opinion - Why Not form a "Godot Foundation" for Console Exports?

Hello, I'm considering using the Godot engine for my go to game engine. But the big thing that is a deal breaker right now, is that there is no official console export except through third parties.

That's why I asked the question: "Why Not form a "Godot Foundation" for Console Exports?"

Because that's what the open source-ish game engine, Defold does. They have a "Defold Foundation" which handles their Nintendo Switch Export.

This snippet is from their Switch Q&A page:

"Q: Why is Nintendo Switch access not free?

A: One of the objectives of the Defold Foundation is to make sure that the Defold software is available to developers world-wide and that the source code is available free of charge. The Defold Foundation will never compromise on this objective, but in this case access to the Nintendo Switch SDK, tools and resources is strictly controlled by Nintendo. This means that the source code for the Nintendo Switch platform implementation in Defold, including the editor and command line tools, can not be made available. This also means that the Defold Foundation is unable to receive community contributions to the code and documentation and it is the foundation which must provide all of the support and updates to the platform for as long as it is required to. The Nintendo Switch access fee will help ensure that the foundation has the resources necessary to support the platform."

What does everyone else think?

There's probably a lot more indie developers other than myself who would like to see official console exports on console such as the Nintendo Switch. This would also probably make Godot even more popular among indie developers.

Just my own speculation, which is to say I don't know why but when godot was being open sourced they probably wanted to keep things simple for the project but they also realized that something was necessary so one of the developers set up their own 'third party' to handle this.

The third-party company mentioned in the docs, AFAIK, is that company and the person behind it is one of the engines original developers.

Maintaining console ports has a cost, and would take valuable time away from improving and fixing the engine itself. Not to mention that the foundation would have to gatekeep any potential contributors for legal reasons (as is done by the Defold Foundation). This is why I don't think having an official console porting foundation is worth it.

Besides, having a nonprofit foundation doesn't make the porting process free for developers. It may make porting less expensive for developers, but this is not guaranteed as a nonprofit is allowed to take a margin on the porting work.

I would personally sacrifise official console support for improving Godot itself. I am excited about Godot 4. It is an ambitious update, and it would be a shame if it got compromised.

If i really need console support, i can pay those Third-Parties. If I need help on choosing the right third-party, i can ask about this on this very forum. If you find the right third-party, it can be just as good as official console support.