Mark of the Wolves said:
They still lost like 2 to 4 billion on the Xbox. Would lose even more this time. Especially since they plan to sell more than 21,000,000 Xbox's.
Economy of scale. Basically the more spare parts MS buys in advance, the lower the cost per unit of said part, thus lower pricing for the end product. Also, the more a part is manufactured, the easier it becomes to manufacture (higher yields and so on). Then after a bit they figure out unneeded pieces of the manufacturing process which also lowers the end price. So them buying all of their parts in advance, all 21,000,00 system's worth, would be a fat lot of change off the individual system cost when tallied up. Of course, they wouldn't work this way as there is no guarantee they'll sell 21 million systems, nor do they likely have the warehouse space to store 21 mil parts of every piece of the 360.
I don't give a rats ass about how much they
supposedly lost per X-box. I say supposedly because even though we know they lost money, it's not like MS is exactly open as to how much they lost. Until they tell us, matter of fact, that they lost $.01 to $100+ per system, I'm going to assume they lost the same amount as everyone else, which we know couldn't have been too bad for a company, as if it were, would anyone still be making game systems?
And my point is that yes, they are losing money per system (be it $.01 or $100), but they've got nothing but pure profit coming in from the licensing side. They don't pay the game development costs for the licensed products they allow through. It's the same for Sony/Nintendo. It's where they make the money. In the end they'll make their money.
My point is that over the life of the original X-box, considering how much MS had purchased in terms of raw goods, I call bullshit again on them supposedly losing "billions" on the X-box. If it's a runaway success like we are led to believe (though still unable to overtake the PS2 this time out), then the ratio of games sold vs systems would bring them to profitability. If you are trying to say MS lost money and hasn't made ANY from it's video game division, that's another call to bullshit. MS won't do anything if it doesn't think it'll see lots of green in the end.
MS likely hasn't made money on system sales, yes. They have, however, likely more than made up for those losses.
All arguments aside, I don't think their 360 controller, or most any company's controller, is worth $40. Arcade sticks and niche controllers, like maracas or some shit, sure. Controllers for the regular system shouldn't be more than $30. Hell, honestly they shouldn't be more than $20, but that's just old school talk there.
