Supporto console in Godot

Procedura di porting per console

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.

Nota

In pratica, il processo è abbastanza simile a quello di Unity e Unreal Engine. In altre parole, non esiste un motore che sia legalmente autorizzato a distribuire modelli di esportazione per console senza richiedere all'utente di dimostrare di essere uno sviluppatore di console con licenza.

Processo di pubblicazione su console

A prescindere dal motore utilizzato per creare il gioco, il processo per pubblicare un gioco su una piattaforma di console è il seguente:

  • Register a developer account on the console manufacturer's website, then sign NDAs and publishing contracts. This requires you to have a registered legal entity.

  • Gain access to the publishing platform by passing the acceptance process. This can take up to several months. Note that this step is significantly easier if an established publisher is backing your game. Nintendo is generally known to be more accepting of smaller developers, but this is not guaranteed.

  • Get access to developer tools and order a console specially made for developers (devkit). The cost of those devkits is confidential.

  • 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

Supporto di terze parti

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 offre il porting e la pubblicazione dei giochi di Godot per Switch e Playstation 4.

  • Pineapple Works offre il porting e la pubblicazione di giochi Godot (GDScript/C#) su Switch, Xbox One e Xbox Series X/S (GDK).

  • RAWRLAB games offre il porting dei giochi di Godot su Switch.

  • mazette! games offre il porting e la pubblicazione dei giochi di Godot su Switch, Xbox One e Xbox Series X/S.

  • Olde Sküül offre il porting e la pubblicazione dei giochi di Godot su Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4 e Playstation 5.

  • Tuanisapps offre il porting e la pubblicazione dei giochi di Godot su Switch.

  • Seaven Studio offre il porting dei giochi di Godot per Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 e PlayStation 5.

  • Sickhead Games offre il porting per console dei giochi Godot su Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One e Xbox Series X/S.

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.