Hmm, I figured that this would be common knowledge. Probably the only console maker since the 16-bit days that has sold their consoles for a profit is Nintendo. Even I doubt that for the Gamecube. The PS1 came out for $299, and I imagine even at that time it was more than it cost to make. Remember how the 3DO came out in 1993 and cost $799? That is probably closer to reality.Gonzo wrote:The thing that surprises me is te fact that they are selling their consoles cheaper then the manufacturig cost. Apart from Sony, has any other games console done this before?I.S.T. wrote: The PS3 figures have been known to be bullshit for a while now. They're just based off of speculation. Dunno about the others.
That said, the thing must cost mroe than 300 to make still, given Sony said they're taking a loss even on the PS3 Slim.
That is, unless they're including R&D into their figures, and not making them public...
Let's face it, the PS3 was some high tech equipment when it came out. They had the price pegged at $600, thinking that their previous success and the hype would be enough for it to sell at that price, and minimize the losses for the actual cost of hardware. However, shortly after the launch, the hype died hard, and within a month, you could buy the console for less than the launch price on ebay (compared to the thousands it was going for just for the preorders). The problem with Sony was that everyone was buying the console to flip it for a profit, and in the end no one was buying games for it. They ended up lowering the price faster than any manufacturer has ever for a console after launch.
The manufacturing costs have come down significantly for the PS3, and the have removed many features that were in the launch version. It is likely that the price of the console is not that far off the manufacturing cost. And you know what? Most of the features that they removed (ie backwards compatibility, Linux) are things that the general consumer doesn't give two shits about.
