Familiar Concepts, Unfamiliar Territory
George Royer · IEEE Annals of the History of Computing · 2011
The value of a comparative study of the early video game console industry and the development of the PC industry is demonstrated, for example, by an analysis of the differing roles of software in both industries. The function of software in the videogame industry differed greatly from its PC counterpart. Where the IBM PC was designed as an open platform for software development, the programmable videogame console was anything but. Where the unchecked freedom to produce software bolstered the success of the PC, it sounded the death knell for the American console industry.