Even though these consoles share much in regard to instruction set architecture, game consoles are still highly specialized computers so it is not common for games to be readily portable or compatible between devices. Only Nintendo has kept a level of portability between their consoles, and even there it is not universal.
The first devices used standard processors, but later consoles used bespoke processors with special features, primarily developed by or in cooperation with IBM for the explicit purpose of being in a game console. In this regard, these computers can be considered "embedded". All three major consoles of the seventh generation were PowerPC based.
As of 2019, no PowerPC-based game consoles are currently in production. The most recent release, Nintendo's Wii U, has since been discontinued and succeeded by the Nintendo Switch (which uses a NvidiaTegraARM processor). The Wii Mini, the last PowerPC-based game console to remain in production, was discontinued in 2017.[citation needed]
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