Everything on the site
Thirteen pieces in four sections. The front page carries a handful of them; this page carries all of them.
Take the lid off3 PIECES
- 01Take the lid off, and every rule is a part you can point atA console's constraints are physical: a fixed die, a fixed memory bus, a fixed thermal budget, and a case that has to survive a living room.
- 02The thermal budget decides the machineCooling a fixed enclosure at a fixed noise level is what actually caps the specification.
- 03The controller is the hard partTooling for a moulded shell is a long-lead, high-cost commitment made before anything else is final.
The rooms where it gets decided4 PIECES
- 01The rooms where it gets decidedCertification is a documented checklist a submission must pass, and it exists because an open cartridge market once flooded shelves with unsellable stock.
- 02What 1983 actually brokeThe North American collapse was a distribution failure, and the platform-holder lock that followed was the direct answer to it.
- 03Three programs, three namesEach holder runs its own developer programme with its own gates, and the differences shape which studios can ship where.
- 04Backward compatibility is a legal problem tooRunning last generation's software involves licences as much as silicon, which is why it appears and disappears.
The same box, understood better each year3 PIECES
- 01The same box, understood better each yearA frozen specification means developers accumulate knowledge of one machine, which is why late-generation titles look impossible.
- 02Where the studios named on this site actually workOwnership, internal studios and the consolidation of the 2000s decide who can attempt what.
- 03The engine decides what a team can attemptLicensed and in-house engines carry different costs, and the choice is made years before a release.
Forty identical test stations3 PIECES
- 01Forty identical test stationsCompliance testing is a floor of identical rigs running scripted passes, and it is the least visible part of shipping.
- 02What a submission has to surviveNaming, error handling, save behaviour and suspend-resume are checked to the letter before content is considered.
- 03The day-one patch, and what it says about the calendarCertification takes weeks, so the disc is finished long before the game is.