CompuServe Messages

Computer companies have mostly stopped doing it, but many other kinds of compainies (including game console companies) decide to keep some projects secret on the grounds that it (supposedly) buys them some strategic advantage. If Sega or Nintendo comes out with a new super-secret platform, you bet they work with a few of what they've decided are key developers, making them sign extrordinary agreements. They don't tell everybody that develops games for their existing platforms, just those few key people. Looks like Commodore may have done the same thing with CDTV and CD32. Those things are much more like game consoles than like computers, so I think it isn't fair to judge by computer rules. The way it was handled is hardly unprecedented in the game console industry, whether or not we agree with it.