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@godotengine@mastodon.gamedev.placeWhy does the Godot Foundation not provide FOSS console ports?
The short answer:
- Legal liability
- Disproportionate cost
- Open source licensing issues
The long answer:
https://godotengine.org/article/about-official-console-ports/
@godotengine Wasn't the plan to establish official export options under W4 Games?
@godotfoundation is not affiliated with @w4games - they sponsor the project, but are just one of the 3rd party vendors out there:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/platform/consoles.html#third-party-support
@godotengine I do remember that there used to be a fork of Godot 3.x which supported Nintendo Switch homebrew, although I'm unsure what challenges there would be to doing something similar in an official capacity. It certainly would be great to have support for homebrew, especially for older consoles like the Dreamcast which still have a somewhat active homebrew community today.
@godotengine I'm not sure I understand, there are no godot games on consoles ?
@ZoidbergForPresident @godotengine Yes, there are Godot games on consoles, but they are made independently by each developer.
Godot doesn't officially support console exports, you have to do it yourself if you are interested in doing that.
@antimundo @godotengine And ... What does that entail ?
@ZoidbergForPresident @godotengine it entails what they say in the blogpost; Godot doesn't officially support console exports, and doesn't plan to for the moment.
@ZoidbergForPresident @antimundo @godotengine Since Godot is open source, a private company can modify it's source to provide console support. Many do. Here's a list with some: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/platform/consoles.html#third-party-support
@dancovich @antimundo @godotengine OK, thanks.
Looking at that first link, starting at 3K dollars is a bit rough for indies, no ?
Also, if they use open source code, shouldn't their code be open source too ?
@godotengine very thoughtful piece! this was quite instructive, thanks for it
@godotengine if Godot is one day on consoles via the "truly Free and Open Source" route that will be the "official port" to me 
@godotengine It's interesting to me that the source code for the engine port that RAWRLAB announced is limited to Nintendo Switch developers. I understand it legally, but it's very different from how source code is handled for most software. The only similar thing I can think of is Unreal Engine, for which the source code is only accessible on GitHub after accepting the engine's EULA.
Please, don't forget Steam Deck with SteamOS, good console and platform with FOSS. 
From Godot's documentation:
"Currently, the only console Godot officially supports is Steam Deck (through the official Linux export templates)."
@godotengine One thing I think could be improved in the article is dedicate a section called "What can I do". The article only has a two line paragraph mentioning third parties but I think it would be better to focus its own section where it is explained why third parties can provide what the foundation can't and that the founders of the foundation do have a separate company that provides that support.
@godotengine Can you still even port to PS4?
Among the reasons I dropped wanting to develop for consoles, was it seems like a new console was coming out every two years.
That's much to fast for my development speed, and things I want to implement.