Here Comes Homebrew: Intro and PlayStation 3
Gaming console homebrew is on the verge of a large metamorphosis. Traditional homebrew meant hacking consoles in ways console makers fought to prevent. However, for the first time all three current generation consoles, the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and the Xbox 360, have mechanisms to allow for legitimate homebrew.
Given this legitimacy I believe we are looking at the start of a mass market homebrew phenomenon where the homebrew enthusiast can finally reach the average gamer.
The Sony PlayStation 3
I start our look at homebrew with the PlayStation 3 because oddly, compared to Sony's attempt to eliminate homebrew on the PSP, Sony has allowed the most legitimate options for non-handheld console homebrew.
Installable Operating Systems
In a move much stronger than Linux on the PS2, Sony surprised everyone when they announced the PS3's ability to install another operating system. However, it was no shock when they backed and got backing from the Linux community. Yellow Dog came first but Fedora Core, Gentoo, Debian, and Ubuntu all run on the PS3. In fact the Linux kernel was patched in early November 2006 to allow any PowerPC distribution to run on the PS3.
Sony's official solution is by far the most open and most flexible homebrew option. By allowing a separate operating system developers can quite literally create anything. You have network, I/O, blu-ray and hard drive access, and naturally full access to the Cell CPU. The biggest limitation is the lack of graphics acceleration. Yes there is access to the framebuffer, but it is near impossible to develop a game with the graphical caliber of an official PS3 title. Given Cell and framebuffer access, however, media players can be developed to run incredibly well.
From a gaming console standpoint the lack of graphics acceleration access, while disappointing to would-be game developers, is expected. Sony wants to and essentially needs to manage the process of bringing games to their console.
Traditional homebrew enthusiasts will have no issues installing Linux, trying to get the average console gamer to install Linux for a homebrew application is practically impossible. Let alone casual users will get frustrated with the library compatibility issues that commonly exist as Linux distributions version themselves. Don't get me wrong, there is the potential for a great niche audience. For example, MythTV on the PS3 is already coming together.
Bottom-line: While traditional homebrew enthusiasts will love it, the tantalizing close but unavailable graphics support for games and the complications of installing and managing operations systems means mass market homebrew is highly unlikely.
The Web Browser
The second way to legitimately run homebrew on your PS3 is through the web browser. In fact the PS3 is the only console to offer this capability out of the box.
I don't believe Sony thought of the web browser as an avenue for homebrew. Including web technology in the console eased Sony's development of things like the PlayStation Network Store. UI development is by far easier using HTML, CSS and Flash than it using C/C++. Of course including the browser also gave Sony a checkmark feature over its competitors, particularly the Xbox 360 which does not offer a web browser.
The amazing thing is that anyone who knows JavaScript, HTML, CSS, or Flash, has the potential to build applications and games that run on a PS3. No, we won’t be seeing Gears of War style graphics, but there are some engaging games built in Flash. Plus, if a site really wanted to provide an experience specific to the console, they can simply detect the user agent string of the PlayStation 3.
The benefit Sony has here is that the browser is included. Anyone with a PS3 can fairly easily access a web-based homebrew application, be it hosted on their personal computer, or somewhere on the Internet. Of course, the later is more likely. The moment an install is required the homebrew developer will lose a significant portion of their potential user base.
My only complaint is that the web browser is not as immediately engaging as starting a downloaded game or inserting a blu-ray disk; the web application must be found using the browser and run within the shell of the browser. The console makers, however, could provide a solution to this (I'll give my thoughts on how they can in a follow-up post).
Bottom-line: Web-based console applications are a big wild card that has huge potential. The success, however, is increased if the console makers officially support it. Even without support, significant potential exists.
Follow-on blog posts ....
I hate to stop here, but this entry is getting long. While I cannot write every day, I will continue this series of articles roughly every other day over the next week. I will take a look at the Wii and Xbox 360, the potential issues with officially supporting homebrew and the ways official support could come.
Currently in the series:
While I'm not a huge proponent of homebrew for a commercial console (after all -- I think that you are better off buying it for the out-of-box functionality and sticking to playing with PCs for true customization), it is interesting to look at the avenues that it does present. The sheer presence of a webbrowser (PS3, Wii) opens up a huge avenue for other applications and ideas to come to fruition. When the Wii first launched the Opera browser, one of the first things we did was to start watching videos on YouTube. The idea of platform specific experiences is neat, but my $0.02 thinks that customization will really be limited to layout tweaks unless developers are able to directly leverage the processors through flash or some other type of supported engine.
It'll be interesting to see if the Sony / Microsoft vision of making a "media center" ends up being developed through homebrew or as a corporate endeavor.
... so said 'Ming' on 02/07/2007 @ 11:02:29 AM [Direct Link]
I am actually very enthusiastic about console homebrew BUT not in its traditional form of hacks and eprom soldering. Even OS installs are too much.
I switched from PC gaming to console gaming mainly because I didn't want to have to manage installs or worry about versions and hardware upgrades. I want to turn my console on and have it function. Homebrew can exist in that world. Web-based homebrew is such an example, but isn't as convenient as it could be (yet). I have more thoughts on this that I'll post over the next week or so.
... so said 'Joseph Molnar' on 02/07/2007 @ 07:42:15 PM [Direct Link]
I am running XBMC on my old XBox and it is used as much as if not more than my 360. There isn't really a comparison between it and MS's Media Centre Extender. Because these utilities and applications are generally not in the best interest of the console manufacturers, enthusiasts are willing to and capable of taking these devices to a whole new level.
... so said 'Dan Nieuwland' on 02/08/2007 @ 06:31:11 AM [Direct Link]
XBMC is definitely impressive. I wouldn’t be surprised if the popularity of XBMC helped play a role in the Media Connect and Media Extension support in the 360.
... so said 'Joseph Molnar' on 02/08/2007 @ 08:48:55 AM [Direct Link]
I have questions: I believe that the native language of PS3 is Linux. I have also read that the published games must be written in C++
Can you use the Linux to program and compile a game for the OS and then copy the file into the Game-OS and launch it?
Has anyone tried copying a linux utility to the game-OS and running it?
What is to stop you?
Since you can run Java, Java has hooks to call C++.
Is there anyone who has tried this to launch a homebrew C++ on P3 game OS through a Java call?
... so said 'cyberbian' on 11/05/2007 @ 09:43:39 PM [Direct Link]
I think, this types of gaming consoles are not anymore a hype as of the moment. People are now hooked up on casual online games as with the recent recession.
... so said 'Luke Alexander' on 10/07/2009 @ 10:17:47 AM [Direct Link]