> 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. Doing so would violate the console manufacturer's NDA.
Just not out in the public.
Console ports of Godot are offered by third-party companies (which have ported Godot on their own).
Maybe it is semantics but it Sounds more like no console support. You pay a third party to port your game to consoles. Perhaps those third parties have built support into Godot, but as you said, it is not public, and not accessible to you other than as a paid service.
I’ve looked into it with both Unreal, Unity, and a couple random engines that advertised their explicit support for various consoles… there is always some business contract stuff with the console owner company before you’ll ever be able to compile for the console, and then depending on the engine there is sometimes a deal you’ll have to cut with the company that built the console specific code/middleware/port/shim/adapter/etc … no game engine ships out of the box with a “build for XBox/Switch/PlayStation button” even in Unreal you’ll need the platform SDK installed and wired up which is documented from the Unreal side, but not provided, you have to get all the other half from the console vendor.
> no game engine ships out of the box with a “build for XBox/Switch/PlayStation button”
Nobody's putting the bar this high. I just want console support, I don't care much if I need to log in to Nintendo's website to download it. I'll need to go there to publish the game either way.
> in Unreal you’ll need the platform SDK installed and wired up which is documented from the Unreal side, but not provided, you have to get all the other half from the console vendor.
Sounds absolutely fantastic, can I get that for Godot?
It looks like GameMaker Studio's Enterprise version does this, albeit for 2d games (and it's $800/year).
How much does the console Godot engine cost me?