Support des consoles dans Godot

Console porting process

In order to develop for consoles in Godot, you need access to the console SDK and export templates for it. These export templates need to be developed either by yourself or someone hired to do it, or provided by a third-party company.

Currently, the only console Godot officially supports is Steam Deck (through the official Linux export templates).

The reasons other consoles are not officially supported are the risks of legal liability, disproportionate cost, and open source licensing issues. The reasons are explained in more detail in this article About Official Console Ports

As explained, however, it is possible to port your games to consoles thanks to services provided by third-party companies.

Note

In practice, the process is quite similar to Unity and Unreal Engine. In other words, there is no engine that is legally allowed to distribute console export templates without requiring the user to prove that they are a licensed console developer.

Processus de publication sur console

Quel que soit le moteur utilisé pour créer le jeu, le processus de publication d'un jeu sur une plateforme de console est le suivant :

  • Enregistrez un compte de développeur sur le site web du fabricant de la console, puis signez des accords de confidentialité et des contrats d'édition. Pour cela, vous devez disposer d'une entité juridique enregistrée.

  • Accédez à la plateforme de publication en passant par le processus d'acceptation. Cela peut prendre jusqu'à plusieurs mois. Notez que cette étape est beaucoup plus facile si un éditeur établi soutient votre jeu. Nintendo est généralement connu pour accepter davantage les petits développeurs, mais ce n'est pas garanti.

  • Accédez aux outils de développement et commandez une console spécialement conçue pour les développeurs (devkit). Le coût de ces devkits est confidentiel.

  • Port your game to the console platform or pay a company to do it.

  • To be published, your game needs to be rated in the regions you'd like to sell it in. For example, game ratings are handled by ESRB in North America, and PEGI in Europe. Indie developers can generally get a rating for cheaper compared to more established developers.

Due to the complexity of the process, many studios and developers prefer to outsource console porting.

You can read more about the console publishing process in this article: Godot and consoles, all you need to know

Support de tierce partie

Console ports of Godot are offered by third-party companies (which have ported Godot on their own). Some of these companies also offer publishing of your games to various consoles.

The following is a list of some of the providers:

  • Lone Wolf Technology offers Switch and Playstation 4 porting and publishing of Godot games.

  • Pineapple Works propose le portage et l'édition de jeux Godot sur Switch, Xbox One et Xbox Series X/S (GDK). (En GDScript/C#).

  • RAWRLAB games propose le portage de jeux Godot sur Switch.

  • mazette! games propose le portage et l'édition de jeux Godot sur Switch, Xbox One et Xbox Series X/S.

  • Olde Sküül offers Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4 & Playstation 5 porting and publishing of Godot games.

  • Tuanisapps offers Switch porting and publishing of Godot games.

  • Seaven Studio offers Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 & PlayStation 5 porting of Godot games.

  • Sickhead Games offers console porting to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S for Godot games.

If your company offers porting, or porting and publishing services for Godot games, feel free to contact the Godot Foundation to add your company to the list above.

Middleware

Middleware ports are available through the console vendor's website. They provide you with a version of Godot that can natively run on the console. Typically, you do the actual work of adapting your game to the various consoles yourself. In other words, the middleware provided has ported Godot to the console, you just need to port your game, which is significantly less work in most cases.

  • W4 Games offers official middleware ports for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and Playstation 5.